The minister assessed that the political uncertainty caused by the U.S. presidential elections will not affect the commitment to the decisions made during the recent NATO summit, including support for Ukraine.
“I have no doubts regarding this because this [support] has been voiced by leaders of serious countries that are already simply doing it,” Sikorski said, listing the U.K., the Netherlands, Denmark, and Poland as examples, and adding that this list is not exhaustive.
Questioned about the possible electoral victory of Donald Trump, who said that he would bring the war to an end
even before he takes office, Sikorski said that “it would be good if that came to pass.”
“After all, we all want peace, we just don’t want capitulation before Putin. If his team are considering how to do it, how to influence Putin so that he backs down from his criminal blunder, that’s a good, not a bad thing. Some of the ideas of the alternative administration deserve utmost attention.”
The Polish foreign minister also added that he is in talks with “the whole spectrum” of people in Trump’s team, and that “one of the ideas is to increase assistance to Ukraine and that is an idea that we like and that we support.”
Among Trump’s associates Sikorski spoke of was his former National Security Adviser, Robert C. O’Brien, with whom the Polish diplomat met on Friday.
In a text published in Foreign Affairs magazine last month, O’Brien presented a draft of the potential second Trump administration’s foreign policy, in which he stated that
“Washington should make sure that its European allies understand that the continued American defense of Europe is contingent on Europe doing its part,” something that Sikorski agrees with.
The top Polish diplomat said that for years now he has been vocal about the fact that “Americans have their own challenges in the Pacific and we, as Europe, cannot expect that the Americans will save us in times of trouble every possible time, even in case of a danger with which we should be able to deal with ourselves.”
“Europe as Europe should also have the capability to react to crises. And we are doing it, we finally have a European Union defense budget, we have rapid response forces, there will be a Commissioner for Defense, except all of this is happening too slowly,” Sikorski said.
The Polish Connection
Referring back to the U.S.’s “own challenges in the Pacific”, Sikorski said that Poland had had a history of facilitating U.S.-China talks, referring to ambassadorial talks held in Warsaw during the Cold War, when Poland was a communist satellite state, for example during Richard Nixon’s presidency, when Washington and Beijing did not have formal diplomatic relations.
“Let me remind you that dozens [of talks] took place in Poland – I believe over one hundred – between the United States and China even during communist times,” Sikorski said. “Poland may play this kind of role [again].”
As the Polish foreign minister said, “international trade is responsible for a bigger part of the GDP in Europe than in the U.S. So a global trade war would hit us even more. We should try to prevent that."
On the other hand, China should not support “the biggest war in Europe in our modern history without a negative impact on its interests and reputation,” Sikorski said, referring to reports that China may have been supporting Russia in its war against Ukraine.
“It is with a Bolshevik honesty that we say to our Chinese comrades, that if they force us to choose between our most important trade partner and our main ally, the United States, then of course we will choose the United States.”
