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Polish president Andrzej Duda has criticised Nato for treating Poland like a “buffer zone” rather than a fully fledged member facing a resurgent Russia and urged the alliance to place permanent bases in the former Soviet bloc country.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Duda, a conservative elected in May, said Nato was failing to implement its stated policies and had not adapted its strategy on its eastern border following Russia’s “imperialist actions” in Ukraine and Georgia.
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“We do not want to be the buffer zone. We want to be the real eastern flank of the alliance,” said Mr Duda. “Today, when we look at the dispersion of bases . . . then the borderline is Germany.
“Nato has not yet taken note of the shift . . . of Poland from the east to the west,” he added. “Nato is supposed to be here to protect the alliance . . . If Poland and other central European countries constitute the real flank of Nato, then it seems natural to me, a logical conclusion, that bases should be placed in those countries.”
Warsaw will host the alliance’s biennial summit next year, and Mr Duda has said discussions over permanent bases in eastern Europe would be a central issue, despite German concerns that such a move would provoke Moscow.
Until last year, Nato had only one small military base east of the former Iron Curtain, at Szczecin in Poland. There are plans to double it in size and create a network of “force integration units” across eastern Europe. But there are still no Nato fighting troops deployed east of Germany.
Mr Duda, a 43-year-old lawyer and former member of the European parliament, stunned Poland’s political establishment when he defeated the country’s incumbent centre-right president. His victory underlined widespread public discontent despite surging economic growth that has fuelled the rebound of his right-wing Law and Justice party. It also creates a potentially awkward cohabitation with Poland’s centre-right government. The president is the head of the military and foreign policy and can propose and veto legislation.
A practising Catholic, Mr Duda was schooled as a politician in the chancellery of former president Lech Kaczynski, who died in the Smolensk air tragedy and whose term in office resulted in rough relations with Moscow and Berlin.
However, during his campaign Mr Duda sought to distance himself from the late Mr Kaczynski’s brother Jaroslaw, the more conservative leader of the party. The amount of influence he has on Mr Duda’s presidency is seen by many to be a determining factor in his term in office.
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In the interview, his first with the international media since his election, Mr Duda also raised concerns about a $3.5bn defence helicopter deal with Airbus, criticised EU climate change policy and defended his proposed program of tax cuts and spending increases.
Made commander-in-chief of the Polish armed forces as part of his swearing-in last Thursday, Mr Duda said media reports of irregularities in a recent $3.5bn military helicopter deal were “problematic” and that he would seek to investigate the tender and raise the issue with the defence minister.
“There are some concerning signals regarding . . . certain irregularities concerning the tender,” Mr Duda said. “The [defence] minister has denied that such irregularities have happened. But in the public space, some information is missing.”
“This is a very important issue,” he said. “We need to clarify this issue . . . and look at the whole matter in a substantive way. Look at the legality of action, all of it.”
France’s Airbus was selected as the preferred supplier of the 50 utility helicopters by Poland’s defence ministry in April, but Mr Duda said he preferred such tenders to be awarded to companies that manufactured equipment inside the country.
“Given that such a huge amount of money is being spent . . . it lies in our interests that this money generates growth in the economy and acts as an engine of development,” he said in the interview in the grand 17th century presidential palace in central Warsaw.
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“I would like to see a situation that such big purchases . . . maximise the opportunities for the Polish economy. . . manufactured in Poland, giving work to the Polish people.”
Aside from his duties as head of state and military head, Mr Duda will also have a say in dictating the country’s international relations. He said he would increase the office’s activity in drawing up Poland’s foreign policy, describing it as “not a revolution, but a correction”.
During his election campaign, Mr Duda called for more power to be devolved from the EU to member states. His term could affect close relations between Warsaw and Brussels, which hit a zenith last autumn with the appointment of former Polish prime minister Donald Tusk as European Council president.
In response to a question regarding his support for the presidency of Mr Tusk, who led the rival party to Mr Duda’s, he said that he would like “Polish people who are in high positions to fulfil our aspirations . . . and take into account the Polish point of view.”
“I believe it lies in the interests of Poland that our representatives are in the most prestigious positions, both in the European and global arena,” he added. “They should take into account in their work where they come from, as it is done by all the others.”
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Mr Duda’s term, and Law and Justice’s likely victory in October, could also affect Poland’s approach to global climate change negotiations that begin in Paris in November.
While current prime minister Ewa Kopacz agreed to support the EU’s initiative to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 40 per cent between 1990 and 2030, Mr Duda and his party have criticised the proposals.
“Europe is undertaking too far-reaching commitments that will lead to the dramatic decrease of competitiveness,” said Mr Duda. “We should look at the resources we have here, such as coal.”
Poland has vast coal reserves and the mining industry employs more than 100,000 people, represented by politically powerful unions that tend to back Mr Duda’s party. Poland has argued that switching to cleaner fuels will be cripplingly expensive.
“Europe could boost its energy independence,” Mr Duda said. “What it is doing now is cutting itself off from those resources, which is the wrong policy.”