Trump welcomes Poland’s Nawrocki to White House with eye on Ukraine

WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump welcomed Polish President Karol Nawrocki back to the White House on Sept 3 after backing the conservative nationalist in Polish elections, with their meeting likely to focus on Russia's war in Ukraine and energy security.

Mr Trump extended the invitation days after Mr Nawrocki was sworn in early in August and then intervened to ensure he joined a telephone call about Ukraine with European leaders instead of his rival, centrist Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

The president hosted Mr Nawrocki at the White House in May, backing him at a crucial moment in the Polish election. Mr Nawrocki went on to defeat the candidate of Mr Tusk’s pro-European, centrist party a month later.

The Sept 3 talks are expected to centre on

stalled negotiations to end the war

in Ukraine and Poland’s security concerns amid signs that Mr Trump has grown frustrated with Russian President Vladimir Putin for

failing to move forward on peace efforts.

On Sept 3, Mr Trump said

he was disappointed

in Mr Putin, adding that his administration planned some action to reduce deaths in the war. Poland, a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, borders both Russia and war-torn Ukraine.

Mr Trump greeted Mr Nawrocki at the White House with a flyover by US pilots in military jets before a meeting in the Oval Office and a private lunch. 

Mr Charles Kupchan, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said Mr Nawrocki would urge Mr Trump to stand firm against Mr Putin and refrain from reducing US troops in Poland.

“From the Polish side, it’s clear what the message will be, and that is, ‘Don’t get played by Putin, stand up to him and we need a united transatlantic position if we’re going to get an end to the war’,” Mr Kupchan said.

Mr Nawrocki was also expected to push for an increased US commitment to Polish security and more troops but that could be a tough sell at a time when the US military’s force structure review was likely to recommend fewer troops in Europe, he added.

‘A tough neighbourhood’

The US military presence on Nato’s eastern flank, including Poland, remains one of the central issues for Warsaw, which is seeking assurances of continued support.

“The success of his (Mr Nawrocki’s) special relationship with the MAGA movement and with President Trump would be if the United States increased its presence in Poland,” Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told journalists on Sept 2, referring to Mr Trump’s defining slogan for his presidency: Make America Great Again.

In Poland, the run-up to the visit has seen open conflict between the foreign ministry and the presidential palace over preparations, and, unusually, there is no high-ranking government official in Mr Nawrocki’s delegation.

Mr Trump has long been supportive of Poland, lauding its leadership in boosting military spending and acknowledging its geographic position in “a tough neighbourhood”.

But experts say he will be looking for Warsaw to buy even more US weapons for its own use and to send to Ukraine.

Poland is a big buyer of US arms, such as M1A2 Abrams tanks, F-35 fighter jets, AH-64 Apache helicopters, Javelin missiles and HIMARS rocket launchers. In June, Washington said it would give Poland a US$4 billion (S$5.1 billion) loan guarantee to buy more.

Mr Paul Jones, a fellow at the Centre for European Policy Analysis, who served as US ambassador to Poland when Mr Trump visited Poland in 2017, said Poland’s commitment to US energy projects should appeal to Mr Trump’s business instincts. REUTERS