Poland’s President Karol Nawrocki has decided to visit the White House without any government representatives in his delegation.
That was, he said, because of past attacks on US President Donald Trump made by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and foreign minister Radosław Sikorski.
Poland’s foreign ministry told portal Wirtualna Polska on September 2: “The practice so far has been for a representative of the foreign ministry to participate in the president’s meetings.”
It added that had been the case when Nawrocki’s predecessor, Andrzej Duda visited Washington,and that “there cannot be two foreign policies serving one country”.
Poland’s Constitution states that the government “shall conduct the internal affairs and foreign policy of Poland” and that “the president shall cooperate with the prime minister and the appropriate minister in respect of foreign policy”.
Sikorski also published a video on social media in which he outlined that the government’s main suggestions to Nawrocki were to “explain Putin’s true intentions in Ukraine” to Trump and to “avert a reduction of US military forces in Europe, and especially Poland”.
The US has around 10,000 troops stationed in Poland on a rotating basis. That is as part of a NATO presence on the organisation’s eastern flank, which Poland sees as vital for its security since Russia has never attacked any country where US forces were stationed.
Nawrocki’s top aide, Zbigniew Bogucki, responded on September 2, just a day ahead of Nawrocki’s visit in the White House. He said hat no one from the foreign ministry was invited because the government has poor relations with the White House and has in the past “disgraced itself” with critical comments about US President Donald Trump.
Bogucki said that the Polish President is going to “restore good relations with the US, which this government lacks” because of past critical comments. They included Tusk alleging that Trump was a Russian asset.
“These people disgraced themselves,” added the top aide.
Bogucki also criticised a recent letter by the foreign ministry to Nawrocki that instructed him on how to approach talks with Trump. The contents of the letter were leaked to the media after Sikorski had announced its existence on August 28.
In the document, the ministry told the President to avoid making any commitments to further Polish arms purchases from the US, not to declare support for a US company to be the contractor for a planned second nuclear power plant in Poland, and to avoid discussing the government’s plans for a new digital tax and to impose controls on social media.
Bogucki said it was “bizarre” for a government that had such poor relations with Washington to “try to dictate what the president should and should not say”.
Trump, who supported Nawrocki during this spring’s presidential election campaign by hosting him in the White House in May, has threatened punitive sanctions against countries that introduce digital taxes. He has made clear that his administration will not stand for censorship of US-based social media platforms.
The exclusion of government representation at the meeting in the White House marked the latest in a series of disputes between Tusk’s centre-left government and the opposition Conservatives-aligned President Nawrocki that have been a feature of Nawrocki’s first month in the job.
The President has already vetoed several pieces of legislation supported by the government and he is refusing to appoint Tusk’s nominee as ambassador in Washington.
Nawrocki has insisted the government should consult with him on future legislation to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings. It was he and not Tusk whom the White House asked to represent Poland at the US President’s recent teleconference with European leaders.
The Tusk government has backed the “coalition of the willing”, a number of States, mostly European, willing to guarantee any future peace in Ukraine.
Poland, though, was not invited to a meeting in the White House in August of countries backing Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky, either by Ukraine or the US.
