Poland will soon be one of more than 30 states whose citizens can stay in the United States of America without a visa for 90 days. The head of the White House, Donald Trump, announced the launch of the procedure.

“I have already signed some preliminary documents, we will provide Poland with the complete abolition of visas,” Trump said.

As the White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham later added, the Ministry of Homeland Security will now take the necessary measures to assess Poland’s compliance with the visa-free entry program. According to her, in the event of a positive verdict, Polish citizens will be allowed visa-free entry into the United States for business visits and for tourism purposes.

“Bilateral relations between the USA and Poland have never been stronger, and this (the decision on visa-free entry. - RT ) will be a remarkable achievement for both countries,” she explained.

Currently, the United States visa-free program includes 38 countries, including France, Germany, Japan and Australia.

Such a development was expected, as the American leader announced this decision on September 23 on the sidelines of the 74th session of the UN General Assembly during a meeting with Polish President Andrzej Duda.

“They tried to get this for many, many decades, and I will provide this opportunity to the Poles as a sign of respect to the Polish people living in the USA and Poland,” he pointed out.

In turn, the Polish leader expressed the hope that the Americans will introduce visa-free travel by the end of 2019.

  • Archival photo of June 12, 2019. Handshake of Andrzej Duda and Donald Trump
  • © Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

"Trump demonstrates loyalty to Poland"

According to Nikita Daniuk, deputy director of the Institute for Strategic Studies and Forecasts at the PFUR, recently strong ties have been built between Poland and the USA, the countries are actively interacting with each other in various fields - from the defense industry to the energy sector.

“I do not exclude the possibility that the notorious medium and short-range missiles, if they appear anywhere, are in Poland. The Polish leadership seriously hopes to become one of the main partners of the United States on the continent amid a crisis in relations between Washington and Brussels. In addition, despite its small size, the Polish diaspora in the United States is also quite developed, and it is a major player who can lobby his interests at various levels: both at the legislative level through Congress and at the executive level through the presidential administration. Therefore, it seems to me that this is an important retaliatory step on the part of Trump, which, on the one hand, shows location. On the other hand, such a cancellation of visas is unlikely to lead to the fact that a large number of Poles rush to the United States to stay there and work illegally. This is unlikely to happen, so Trump does not lose anything, and with this kind of response, he demonstrates his loyalty to them, ”the source said.

Director of the Center for European Information, Associate Professor MGIMO of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Nikolai Topornin also pointed to special Polish-American relations.

“We remember that Poland has long stated that it is ready to host an American military base and even invest about $ 2 billion in its support. In other words, they are not inviting Americans to an empty place. There are other agreements. It is about strategic cooperation. In addition, there is an energy factor. Poland was one of the first countries to accept American liquefied natural gas and indicated its readiness to become a transit state of American liquefied natural gas to the EU, ”the expert said in an interview with RT.

Recall that in September, Trump and Duda signed a Joint Declaration on improving defense cooperation between Poland and the United States. According to the document, the number of American troops in the republic will be increased by 1 thousand people. In addition, representatives of Warsaw said that the headquarters of American troops on the eastern flank of NATO will soon be transferred from Germany to Poland.

Countries have also recently strengthened ties in the energy sector. Warsaw has emphasized several times that it will abandon Russian gas after 2022, when the contract with Gazprom is completed. In exchange, the Polish state-owned oil and gas company PGNiG has already signed a number of agreements with American LNG exporters. In addition, Poland and the United States share a critical attitude towards the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and agreed to impede the implementation of this project.