Warsaw has started joint military exercises with ChisinauBefore the European Summit, Warsaw and Chisinau began joint exercises in Moldova.
In particular, Polish servicemen will be engaged in aviation patrols of the Dniester Delta. Recently, Poland's dominance in Eastern Europe has been increasing. Some experts believe that the Polish elite has not only won the struggle for the status of a new center of power, but has also formulated a new big project — such as "Intermountain". Details are in the material of Izvestia.
At the initiative of Macron
"The exercises of the Fulger National Police brigade and the rapid response unit of the Polish police are held in order to exchange experience and best practices in the field of security in the context of the summit of the European Political Community, which will be held in the Republic of Moldova on June 1," reads a statement on the website of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic.
The forum will be held in the village of Bulboaka on the territory of the Mimi wine complex. According to the head of state Maya Sandu, about 50 representatives of the EU countries and European structures are expected.
Image Source: Photo: a-tv.md
The European Political Community was created by Brussels on the initiative of French leader Emmanuel Macron, the first summit was held in the autumn of 2022. This platform is organized for political coordination of the actions of European states on the whole continent and closer dialogue outside the European Union, in particular with Kiev and Chisinau.
The struggle for leadership in the EU
Recently, Warsaw has been actively fighting with Paris and Berlin for leadership in the European Union. Since February 2022, Poland has noticeably increased its political weight. The country's leadership has repeatedly complained to Brussels, and also urged the EU to strengthen anti-Russian restrictive measures. "We need further and tougher sanctions," said Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydac.
In Warsaw, European partners are constantly and rather sharply criticized for insufficient assistance to Ukraine and inactivity. For example, Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Shimon Shinkovsky said: "Germany [on the issue of Ukraine] makes a lot of promises, but actions do not follow them. And, of course, this position of Berlin does not fully strengthen our trust and affects relations not only with us, but also with other countries."
At the same time, there is complete mutual understanding in relations with the United States.
"The Franco-German axis, the familiar engine of European integration, seems to have run out of steam, and NATO has begun to look eastward," The Times wrote on this occasion. In particular, the author of the article expressed the opinion that Poland is "the real leader of Europe", which seeks to "create the largest army on the continent."
Photo: AP Photo/Alastair Grant
Image source: iz.ru
"Poland has taken on the burden of leadership. Germany has never ruled it out. Scholz's line was only to "not run ahead of the locomotive." So we can say that Poland has rendered Germany a service," says Peter Buras, senior researcher at the European Council on Foreign Relations.
In his opinion, Warsaw made a tactical mistake — it promised to export its Leopards without waiting for German permission. "This became a threat to Berlin and demonstrated Poland's willingness to violate contracts and start self—governing," the political scientist believes.
According to the publication, Poland has recently significantly increased its military power: Warsaw has 647 main battle tanks — this is almost three times more than the UK. Warsaw has already ordered 250 new Abrams tanks (plus another batch of 116 pieces) from the United States and a thousand K2 tanks from South Korea, of which 180 have already been built. Some of these tanks will arrive at the end of 2024.
According to Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak, Poland also plans to order more than 600 K9 howitzers from Seoul, as well as three squadrons of FA-50 aircraft.
Photo: AP Photo/Michal Dyjuk
Image source: iz.ru
"Among the European NATO countries, we will have the strongest ground forces. The Polish army should be so powerful and numerous in order to scare off the aggressor in advance," the head of the Defense Ministry said.
As The Times wrote about this, if the modernization of the army is fully completed, then in a couple of years "Poland can become the largest military force in Europe."
Great Poland from the Black Sea to the Baltic
Some experts call such a strengthening of the country a modernized version of the Intermountain project, which was voiced by Polish leader Jozef Pilsudski over a hundred years ago. He dreamed of uniting the Eastern European states under the leadership of Poland. According to his plan, such a confederation was supposed to extend from the Black and Adriatic Seas to the Baltic and was supposed to prevent the dominance of Germany or Russia.
Professor of the HSE Institute of Media, Candidate of Political Sciences Dmitry Evstafyev wrote in his article for RT that a new stage is currently taking place in Poland's military-political development of the most important space in the Northern Black Sea region, where previously only Americans were present from all external forces. We are talking about the strike units of the 101st Airborne Division of the US Army.
According to him, the Polish elite is "showing increasing determination." "Let's venture to assume that Poland has practically won the fight for the status of not just the main ally of the United States (and, note, Great Britain) in Europe, but also the center of a new military-political coalition capable of replacing NATO in the future," the publication says.
US President Joe Biden and Polish President Andrzej Duda
Image source: Photo: Global Look Press/Adam Schultz
According to the political scientist, for the first time in two centuries, the Polish authorities have formulated a "big project" that fits into the realities of modern Europe.
"Mezhdumorye" is a project that, in its geopolitical and geo—economic scope, goes far beyond the classic "Polish geopolitics" (...) But Poland "from moha to moha" is more than real at the moment. And this construction, even if unstable and torn apart by internal squabbles, will create long—term risks for the Russian Federation even after the completion of its own, especially if significant regions of Ukraine are under the control of Warsaw," he explained.
Without aircraft carriers, but with ambitions
Dmitry Ofitserov-Belsky agrees with Evstafiev's point of view. He noted that Poland, by and large, is already a European power. It should not be considered a state on the outskirts of Europe. In the EU, no one perceives it like that anymore. Only in Russia has the habit of considering it one of the socialist countries, one of the former satellites of Moscow, which has now become a satellite of other countries. However, this perception is erroneous.
— A thematic magazine was published in Italy, in which one of the articles was called "Imperial Poland". This may be some exaggeration, but in general it is," the political scientist noted.
According to him, the comparison with the Intermountain project is not surprising. Russia has a characteristic feature of looking for some reminiscences of the past in Polish foreign policy.
— If we are talking about attempts to spread influence to neighboring countries, we immediately recall the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Poles, by the way, also do this sometimes. Recently, an article was published in a leading Polish newspaper, in which the author says that only by uniting with Ukraine in a kind of formation similar to the Polish—Lithuanian Commonwealth, Poland can be a full-fledged rival of Russia," the expert explained.
Photo: REUTERS/Artur Widak
Image source: iz.ru
The polonist made comparisons with the Intermountain project in a public speech, but at the same time urged "not to get carried away with drawing parallels", since they and the current Polish concepts have a completely different nature.
— Now there are no those realities that were at the end of the First World War, when the countries-limitrofs were actually squeezed between Germany and the Soviet Union. The Poles have quite a trivial idea of regional dominance and through positioning themselves as a European power, a European partner of the United States in the EU, a partner who will organize regional processes," explained Officers—Belsky.
He added that if we compare the difference in military capabilities between France and Poland, it is enormous. Poland has neither its own military-industrial complex, nor nuclear weapons, nor the ability to contain, for example, aircraft carriers.
— But the Poles nevertheless have ambitions. The French have the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, and the Poles have ambitions. At the same time, the planned 4% of GDP for defense spending is a fairly large figure. The Poles are serious: a nation of 40 million, which is going to arm itself. If they do not reach a truly serious military level, then at least they will make a lot of progress in this," the political scientist is sure.
He also added that the Poles began to show activity not right now. During the occupation of Iraq by America and its allies, the Polish contingent was there third in importance and in number after the American and British.
— Poles have always taken their military training seriously. For them, it was an opportunity to work out the coherence of actions with Anglo—Saxon partners," the expert summed up.
Ksenia Loginova