“Lobbying US interests for a loose coin”: why Poland announced the need to create a new NATO base

Warsaw is interested in a new NATO base appearing on its territory on a long-term basis. This was in an interview with reporters of the German media group Funke, said Prime Minister of Poland Mateusz Moravecki. According to him, there is a need to strengthen the eastern flank of the North Atlantic Alliance. At the same time, the head of the Polish Sejm advocates that the presence of the alliance's military personnel in Germany not be reduced.

“This is not a question of either or. We need a NATO base in Ramstein, and we need a new long-term base in Poland, ”Moravecki said.

In addition, the Polish prime minister called on Berlin to allocate more funds to maintain NATO's defense capabilities.

“I would not say that Germany is a parasite, but its contribution does not correspond to its obligations. Germany should soon increase defense spending ... If Germany increases its defense spending, its role in NATO will increase, ”he stressed.

In this regard, Moravecki noted that along with the growth of defense spending in Warsaw, the number of American soldiers deployed in Poland increased from 500 to 5 thousand over the past five years.

Earlier, Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Chaputovic said that an increase in the contingent of the US Armed Forces in Poland would play a much greater role in containing Russia than the deployment of American forces in Western Europe.

In early August, US Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell announced that the Pentagon could transfer to Poland part of the American contingent located on German territory. Such a step, if taken, is due to Berlin’s reluctance in the coming years to increase defense spending up to 2% of GDP according to NATO standards.

“It's just insulting - taxpayers in the United States continue to pay for 50 thousand American soldiers in Germany, and the Germans still allow trade profits to be used for domestic purposes,” Grenell noted.

White House head Donald Trump has also repeatedly pointed out that Germany needs to increase its defense spending.

Note that the American ambassador is not the first to express his dissatisfaction with the political course of Berlin. In June 2018, German politicians demanded the expulsion of Grenell from the country for expressing support for the European conservatives and criticism of left-wing political movements. In the winter of 2019, he intimidated German companies participating in the Nord Stream 2 project with sanctions, and later called on Berlin to pay attention to the “Russian threat”. As noted by Der Spiegel, the diplomat from the first day of his tenure violates the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, interfering in the internal affairs of the country.

“The Polish authorities pursue commercial goals”

As the doctor of political sciences, professor at Moscow State University Andrei Manoilo, notes that the need to deploy a NATO base in Poland is dictated by economic interests. The alliance will have to pay considerable sums for renting the territory on which the base will be located, and will also conclude expensive supply contracts.

“The most important thing is that NATO’s budget is such that it can get a high price. After all, they solve political problems, and there is no rental cost that NATO would not pay to solve political problems. Especially if these tasks are approved at the very top of the NATO leadership. Therefore, I think that Poland has primarily commercial goals here. And one of the main goals is to make money on the process. That is, if the NATO base appears, then in the future it will certainly expand. Once it expands, the cost of its maintenance will increase. In general, this is a big market, ”said the expert in a conversation with RT.

According to him, Poland is trying to adapt to the United States and be a conductor of American will in Eastern Europe.

“The EU center is France, Germany and Italy, they are skeptical of many NATO and American initiatives. And Poland, on the contrary, is striving to become the main lobbyist in this space. Moreover, he is fighting for a place in the sun with other same applicants who also want to take this place, but they are more flimsy compared to Poland. Baltic countries, Romania, for example. That is, Poland wants to lobby for interests and receive hard currency for it, ”Manoilo added.

The leading political forces in Poland in recent years have been using Russophobia to achieve their goals, says Professor of the Department of Comparative Political Science of the RUDN University, Yuri Post.

“The Poles decided that Russophobia is a profitable product that can be sold to the West. At the same time, the West needs Warsaw as a kind of “barrier against the Russian threat”, as a state that can represent a place for the location of military bases. In this sense, Polish politicians in Germany are perceived as people who are, to put it mildly, inadequate. But this is a dead end option for the existence of the Polish state and they can’t go far on this path, since Russophobia is pure racism, ”he explained.

Earlier, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu spoke about the growing activity of NATO in Eastern Europe, in particular, about the deployment of US missile defense systems in Poland and Romania. In this regard, he said, the military-political situation on the western borders of Russia remains tense.