Ex-ambassadors look back at Polish-US ties post-1989
PR dla Zagranicy
Grzegorz Siwicki
28.05.2019 15:30
A group of former US and Polish ambassadors have reflected on a history of bilateral ties and the road Poland has travelled since it shook off communism to realign itself with the West three decades ago.
The "USA and Poland After 1989. Ambassadors Panel at the Jagiellonian University" panel discussion in Kraków on Monday. From left: Jacek Stawiski (journalist), Janusz Reiter, Stephen Mull, Maciej Kozłowski and Victor AshePhoto: Adam Koprowski/uj.edu.pl
At a conference on Monday, diplomats including former American ambassadors to Warsaw discussed a track record of Polish-US relations and looked at Poland’s political and economic transition after the country emerged from communism in 1989 and began making efforts to become part of NATO.
The panel discussion in the southern city of Kraków provided a behind-the-scenes insight into Poland’s efforts to join the Western military alliance in the 1990s, the interia.pl website has reported.
Diplomats taking part referred to events such as skillful diplomacy by former US Presidents George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, including contacts their administrations maintained with Poland’s Solidarity freedom movement as well as talks with Poland’s communist authorities and the Kremlin, according to the website.
The former ambassadors also talked about American investment in Poland after the fall of communism, the website reported.
The event at Kraków’s Jagiellonian University brought together diplomats including the former US envoys to Poland Victor Ashe and Stephen Mull.
Ashe was ambassador from 2004 to 2009, and Mull served as his country's envoy to Poland from 2012 to 2015; he was also posted in Warsaw as a diplomat in the 1980s and 1990s.
Those taking part in the Kraków conference also included Janusz Reiter, who served as Poland's ambassador to the United States from 2005 to 2007, and Maciej Kozłowski, chargé d'affaires at the Polish embassy in Washington from 1993 to 1994, interia.pl reported.
Poland in March marked two decades since it became a member of NATO.
Poland on May 1, 2004, joined the European Union, a historic step that strengthened the country’s realignment with the West after decades of communist rule.
(gs/pk)
Source: interia.pl, uj.edu.pl