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Press Conference with His Excellency Mr. Aleksander Kwasniewski, President of the Republic of Poland, and General Joseph W. Ralston, Supreme Allied Commander Europe


SHAPE, 21 June 2001

GEN RALSTON: Let me start off, if I may, by saying that we at SHAPE are extremely honoured by the visit of the President of the Republic of Poland, His Excellency Mr. Aleksander Kwasniewski, here to our headquarters. We had a very successful meeting today, discussing a wide range of current NATO issues to include the significant achievements of Poland in integrating into NATO. As the Supreme Allied Commander, I appreciate the strong support Poland has shown for NATO's efforts in promoting peace and stability in Europe. We're very grateful for the Polish contribution to the multi-national peacekeeping missions in the Balkans, and I have found the Polish soldiers to be well-trained, highly motivated, and able to handle the most difficult situations. I'm encouraged by the remarkable achievements that the Polish Armed Forces have made in implementing NATO standards, in the course of a relatively short period, as members of the Alliance. And I'm extremely proud of the excellent working relationship that we have between the political and military authorities and here at SHAPE with our Polish counterparts. Thank you very much. Mr. President.

PRESIDENT KWASNIEWSKI: Thank you very much. General Ralston, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to express my great satisfaction for the possibility of being here in Mons with you. I would also like to thank you very much for your hospitality and also for the discussions we have had over the past year. Poland is in NATO, and we are trying to be a very good, reliable and credible ally. We realise that membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is not just a guarantee of stability and security, but first of all it is also the responsibility we have to take over, and we have to take over the risks of our presence in sometimes very difficult and challenging places all over the world. I'm also very happy that for the last two years of our presence in the Alliance, the security of our country and of the Alliance has increased. And after hearing briefings here in NATO today, I realise that we will have this security increase even more in military terms. I'm also very glad that we as NATO, as the Alliance, are able to meet the challenges, and we are able to increase the chances for human rights, security and peace in the Balkans. I would like to thank you very much, General, for your high assessment of Polish soldiers and Polish officers who serve in Kosovo and also in other places. I would like also to thank you very much for your high appreciation of the work of Polish officers and generals serving here in NATO. … Poland has entered into NATO with a great tradition and with a great people, and if we add to this the modernisation of the Polish Armed Forces, I hope that soon we will be one of the most faithful allies within NATO. Thank you.

Q: For President Kwasniewski: (1) Possibility of Polish troops being sent to Macedonia. (2) We have heard high praise about the level of the Polish troops, but what is the greatest concern for NATO in the conduct of the Polish armed forces?

PRESIDENT KWASNIEWSKI: As far as Macedonia is concerned, I realise of course that first of all the concept must be adopted, and now we are very close to the adoption of that concept, for example of sending NATO troops to carry out some stabilising actions in the region of Macedonia. If that decision is made, Polish troops, as part of the Alliance would participate in such an action, there is no doubt about that. The situation in Macedonia is clearly very difficult at the moment. Any action will depend on General Ralston's decision on what he wants to achieve.
One of the greatest problems is the modernisation of the Polish Armed Forces, and finding the finances for that. We have adopted plans to modernise the Polish Armed Forces, and we hope that we will be able to implement them. But it means a great effort on the part of the state. We also want to continue the close cooperation that exists now in the North Atlantic structures. We also want to continue the work of our officers, commanders and soldiers in cooperation with NATO. We know that it takes time. We cannot do this overnight; it is a long process. So the three facts for the Polish Armed Forces at the moment are the modernisation, and finding a way to finance the modernisation; the continuation of the current cooperation with other allies within NATO; and also including more and more Polish officers, commanders and soldiers in full cooperation with NATO.

Q: President Kwasniewski, I know that you are a great supporter of the missile defence system, and you are also a supporter of further NATO enlargement, including into the Baltic states. I also know there is a discussion under way in the Senate in Washington connected with the possibility of involving some sort of a trade-off regarding enlargement and missile defence. What do you think about this….?

PRESIDENT KWASNIEWSKI: There is too much speculation in your question. The discussions in the Senate may be various, and I do not want to comment on them. I have our own Senate in Poland, and I have enough trouble with them!
I would like to tell you that on those two issues, I have seen no room for your trade-off . No doubt, we give priority to further NATO enlargement. With enlargement of NATO into countries like Slovakia, which has a border with Poland, and Lithuania, which also has a border with Poland, we would be increasing not just the security of those countries but also of our country. And I'm deeply convinced that the enlargement of NATO into the Baltic states, into Slovenia, Romania and Bulgaria, will increase the security of the whole of Europe. Of course I cannot judge when this will take place, but we should go in this direction. It was expressed in the Summit in Brussels a week ago, and also President Bush was speaking in this spirit. On missile defence, this is a programme that is now being consulted very widely. And according to the United States, this is a programme designed to serve the interests of collective security, not just the security of the United States. It was said that President Bush also stressed very significantly that he wanted to talk about this with other countries, including Russia. I think that this is the right approach, and this is a system which would allow us a higher global security, and no one would like to turn back into the atmosphere of the Cold War. I hope that the (Bush/Putin) meeting in Ljubljana was the first step for such an open

discussion. Some say openly that from the Polish point of view, the priority has to be on enlargement, because the probablility of being hit in Poland by some of these missiles is not very high, I hope.

Q: (Reuters) Dangers of a mission in Macedonia.

GEN RALSTON: Let me say up front that no military operation is risk-free. Even our day-to-day training activities are not risk-free. But any plan that we put forward to the NATO political authorities, we will do our very best to think through the contingencies. And we will do our very best to have our soldiers trained and equipped to meet those contingencies. As an example, you always are concerned about land mines; you are concerned about accidents; you're concerned about the infrastructure. And in this particular area we have done a detailed study of the terrain. It's very rugged terrain, very rugged mountains, and so there are always those difficulties. But any plan that we put forward, we will have done our best to think through those contingencies and make sure we have done the best job we can to mitigate the risks - recognising there is no such thing as a risk-free military operation.

Q: Mr. President, you mentioned the modernisation of the Polish Armed Forces as one of the priorities in the cooperation of the Polish Armed Forces with the Alliance. I would like to ask you to what extent NATO is going to support the development of Polish Navy?

PRESIDENT KWASNIEWSKI: I must inform you that this journalist works for a newspaper in Gdansk, which is one of the important Polish cities on the Baltic coast. So I understand your question as lobbying for the Polish Navy in Gdansk! I cannot answer your question specifically, and I would like to refer you to General Piatas, the Chief of Polish Defense Staff.
As far as the Navy is concerned, I will tell you only one thing: out of the three newest NATO members, Poland is in the best position.

Q: General Ralston, have you already received offers by NATO countries to give troops to the mission in Macedonia?

GEN RALSTON: To give you a little of the context, we were tasked by the political authorities to develop an ops concept and work through the plan. We have done that, and we are now at the phase called force generation. This is when the nations come forward with what kind of forces they could make available to do that. That process is being run by the Deputy SACEUR, General Rupert Smith, and they are working on that now. The answer is there have been a number of nations that have come forward with offers of troops, and we are now working through to get the right troops in the right place at the right time.

Q: How many nations?

GEN RALSTON: Several nations.

Q: What would be the size of this operation? Would they come from the current operation in Kosovo?

GEN RALSTON: First of all, with regard to the size, I'm not going to get into the specifics of the kind of force, but it's a substantial force to carry out the mission. We have not scrimped in any way to do that. Secondly, where the forces come from - whether they come directly from the nations or whether they come, let's say, from Kosovo and be back-filled by the nations - those are the technical details that are being worked through now. So this is not a big problem.

Q: The first question to SACEUR. We have heard many opinions, both from NATO and from you, about the modernisation of the Polish Armed Forces and the condition of the Polish Armed Forces at the moment, and they were much more critical in the past. We are now hearing much more praise. Is it just a courtesy since you are sitting at the same table with the Polish President and this is why you have such warm words? The second question to President Kwasniewski. You have said that we may be sending our troops to Macedonia. Is this the official position? Are we among the "several nations" mentioned by General Ralston?

GEN RALSTON: First of all, when I visited Poland last - I think it was in the February time period - I had said at that time that only a nation can decide what level of resources they will provide for their defence; that was properly a decision for the Polish people. But those of us in uniform I think have a responsibility to give our best military advice on the balance of those resources, between the size of the armed forces, the professionalism of that armed force, the training of the armed forces, and the modernisation. And I had said at that time that I thought that the modernisation piece was suffering, that it needed some more attention. Since that time, your parliament agreed with that assessment, and I'm very pleased that they have come forward with the six-year plan. I think it is a balanced programme. It is a much better programme than when I was there in February. And so it's on that basis that I have said that I'm very pleased with the progress that the Polish Armed Forces have made. And as pleased and happy as I am to have your President here with me today, I am not saying nice things about the Polish Armed Forces because of that. It's because of the facts of what the Polish parliament has done.

(end of tape)