The 75th anniversary of its founding.. Why is Poland important to NATO?

Biden (right) visited Poland on the first anniversary of the Russian-Ukrainian war (Getty)

Berlin -

Since the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war, Poland has been in a state of alert, receiving about two million Ukrainian refugees, and being threatened with being drawn into a war with Russia, as sharing a vast border with Ukraine (530 kilometers) makes the possibility of Russian missiles being hit.

This fear actually occurred in 2022, when a missile fell on Polish territory, and after widespread doubts about its source, NATO confirmed that the missile was launched by Ukrainian defenses and accidentally landed in Poland.

On the day after the anniversary of the founding of NATO approached (April 4), Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk indicated that Europe was entering the “pre-war era” for the first time since the end of World War II, pointing out that the war had become real, and that any scenario could to happen.

But why does Poland view the Russian-Ukrainian war with so much sensitivity? What is the country's role in the event of war? How important is Poland to NATO? Questions whose answers provide insight into the evolving relationship between Poland on the one hand and the United States, NATO and Europe on the other.

Polish soldiers participating in a NATO exercise (Getty)

Why does Poland view Russia with historical sensitivity?

At one time, there was what was called the Warsaw Pact, named after the Polish capital. It was a military organization founded by the Soviet Union in 1955 in response to the founding of NATO, and it consisted of a number of Eastern Bloc countries, including Poland at the time. During the Cold War, Poland was an ally of the Soviet Union. , especially in the context of the rule of the Polish Communist Party, and was called the People's Republic of Poland, but it maintained its independence from the Russian Federation.

The sensitivity between the two sides is old, as about 40 wars took place between Russia and Poland throughout history, including the Livonia War (1558-1583), when Russia tried to expand and annex the lands of what was then called Livonia (currently Latvia and Estonia), and the rulers of this region sought help from the rulers of neighboring countries, especially the Union. Polish-Lithuanian. At the end of the war, Russia lost the lands of Livonia to this union as well as to Sweden.

There is also the Russian-Polish War (1654-1667), which in turn ended with the victory of the Poles despite their losses at the beginning, and the dispute occurred specifically over Ukraine, but Russia later won in other wars against Poland, and this led to the partition of Poland and its falling under Russian occupation.

Confrontations took place between them again in the 20th century, especially the war that immediately followed World War I, which lasted for two years, in which Poland was victorious. The Soviet Union and Nazi Germany also invaded the territory of Poland in 1939, which led to the division of its lands between them, in addition to other confrontations during the two world wars, As well as conflicts within Poland to try to break free from Soviet influence, until they succeeded in doing so in 1989.

Why is Poland so important to NATO?

Ukraine did not fall into the hands of the Russians as President Vladimir Putin had planned, but if the plan had been achieved, Poland would have formed a place to regroup Ukrainian forces, according to an analysis of the Economist newspaper, as Ukraine has 10 border crossings with Poland. Ukrainian soldiers benefited from training in Poland after the outbreak of war. The war makes the country an important strategic point in assembling and training anti-Russian forces. These forces could become NATO forces if the war expands into a confrontation between Russia and the alliance countries.

Poland knows well its importance to NATO, and this was evident in the statements of its leaders, and the American “Defense News” website confirms that there is no ally within NATO that has, over the past years, developed its defense systems and supported American forces in Europe as Poland did, which abandoned many of the old Soviet weapons. It was replaced with advanced Western weapons, unlike a number of Eastern European countries close to Russia.

Poland's voice has become strong within NATO, including its objection to the possibility of nominating Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen for the position of the next Secretary-General of NATO (Mette later denied the news). Warsaw stressed the selection of a person from the eastern wing countries, and Poland supports the Prime Minister of Estonia, Kaya Klaas Khalifa. By Norwegian Jens Stoltenberg.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (left) and former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki inspect Polish armored vehicles in Warsaw last year (Getty)

How has Poland strengthened its military arsenal recently?

Poland has tended to strengthen its military arsenal since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and it was the largest customer of American weapons during the year 2023, with a value of $30 billion, which is an unprecedented number of American weapons for Poland. These purchases include new Apache helicopters, Himars artillery missile systems, and Abrams tanks.

Poland did not stop at American weapons, as it recently signed a huge deal worth 1.5 billion euros to purchase advanced weapons from Sweden, including advanced Carl Gustav anti-tank rifles, weapons that the Ukrainian army used against Russian forces with great success.

Poland announced that it will allocate 4% of its gross product to defense affairs in 2024, which is a relatively high number compared to the average of European Union countries of 1.7%. However, Poland is not only a buyer of weapons, but also a manufacturer of them, and during 2022 it exported about 1.18 billion euros of weapons, most of them For European countries, one of the most famous companies is the Polish Arms Group, which specializes in the manufacture of GROT submachine guns.

How did relations with the United States develop?

After the outbreak of the war, the United States deployed a military division in southeastern Poland to support local forces, and sent rapid air support to them. Poland also became a point of communication between America and Ukraine, and US President Joe Biden visited it on the first anniversary of the Russian invasion.

Poland authorized the United States to open the first permanent American military base on its territory, specifically in the city of Poznan, western Poland, after the American military presence in the country was limited to a support group consisting of a few thousand soldiers. It is the first permanent American military base in a country that has borders with... Ukraine.

Not far from the base, specifically in the town of Boydz, Washington and NATO opened a complex for storing and maintaining military equipment. Poland also began building an American missile air defense base in the north of the country in 2016, which is part of a NATO missile defense present in several countries, including Turkey, Spain, and Romania.

How did Poland support Ukraine?

Poland turned into a bridge for the delivery of many weapons provided by NATO countries to Ukraine. It was also the first NATO country to officially announce the provision of fighter aircraft to Ukraine after the beginning of the war, and the matter was related to MiG-29 fighters, at a time when NATO’s military support was Shy.

Warsaw also pressured Germany to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine after Berlin was reluctant to do so, but Poland stopped exporting weapons to Ukraine in the last quarter of 2023 in the context of disputes between the two countries.

An analysis by the American research institution, the Atlantic Council, indicates that the Polish leadership worked to “formulate unprecedented ties between the Polish and Ukrainian peoples,” despite historical differences, and that the two countries found themselves in a union “in the face of the existential threat coming from Russia.”

Source: Al Jazeera