All news

Poland hopes for change in Russia’s foreign policy after NATO summit

NATO decisions and the deployment of combat battalions and US tank brigades on the eastern flank are aimed at achieving this goal
Russian Foreign Ministry building in Moscow Gennady Khamelyanin/TASS Archive
Russian Foreign Ministry building in Moscow
© Gennady Khamelyanin/TASS Archive

WARSAW, July 11 /TASS/. The Polish government hopes Russia will change its policy after the recent NATO summit in Warsaw held on July 8-9, Polish Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz told a news conference devoted to the summit’s results on Monday.

"NATO decisions and the deployment of combat battalions and US tank brigades on the eastern flank are aimed at achieving this goal," the Polish defense minister told the news conference which was also attended by other Polish government ministers.

"We hope that [now] Russia is going to act differently," he added.

Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo said that the Warsaw summit’s decisions had come in response to Russia’s policy. "Russia’s actions gave an impulse to strengthening the eastern flank," Szydlo said.

"It is NATO’s defensive gesture rather than an attempt to provoke Russia," Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski said. He described NATO’s actions as a reaction to [Russia’s] actions in Ukraine and Georgia and its confrontational behavior in the Baltic and Black Seas. NATO used the mildest of all possible military responses, which is evident of its intention to defend itself but not to give the Russians any grounds to think that it is a provocation, Witold Waszczykowski said.

The Russian Foreign Ministry believes that NATO is concentrating its efforts on deterring a non - existent threat from the East. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the Russian side was studying the Warsaw summit’s decisions in detail. "However, even the initial analysis of the summit’s results shows that NATO continues existing in a world of military and political illusions.

"A stark contrast between the decision to strengthen the NATO flanks and the unprecedented terrorist threat coming from the south indicates that NATO is distancing its policy from the urgent needs to protect and ensure the security of citizens of the NATO member states," Zakharova said after the summit.

"Attempts to demonize Russia with an aim to justify one’s own steps in the field of military construction and [attempts] to distract attention from the destructive role of NATO and its separate allies in provoking crises and maintaining the seats of tension in various parts of the globe have grown out of proportions," the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said.