Andrzej Duda will host the talks at the presidential palace in Warsaw, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
Jacek Siewiera, who heads the president’s National Security Bureau (BBN), said in a tweet on Wednesday: “In preparation for the NATO summit, President Andrzej Duda has called a meeting at the BBN on Thursday.”
In attendance will be Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Mariusz Błaszczak; Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau; the Polish ambassador to NATO, Tomasz Szatkowski; the chief of the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces, Gen. Rajmund Andrzejczak; and Operational Commander Gen. Tomasz Piotrowski, according to Siewiera.
'Poland’s key contributions to Ukraine’s self-defence'
On Monday, Poland’s president discussed preparations for the NATO summit with the Western alliance’s Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, according to officials.
Stoltenberg thanked Duda for Poland’s role in supporting Ukraine’s war effort against the Russian invasion.
The NATO chief tweeted afterwards: “Good call with President Andrzej Duda to prepare for the upcoming NATO summit in Vilnius. I thanked him for Poland’s key contributions to Ukraine’s self-defence. NATO will continue our support for as long as it takes.”
'We want to be prepared as an alliance’
The Polish president’s top foreign policy aide, Marcin Przydacz, said on Tuesday that Duda and Stoltenberg also discussed "proposals important for the alliance’s eastern flank.”
Przydacz added: “The conversation also focused on the general security situation in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and on the threats and unpredictable events that are happening, something that Poland didn't experience before.”
Przydacz told reporters that “Poland, the neighbouring countries and NATO itself must carry out certain adaptive work, review procedures and prepare for various types of provocative actions.”
He added: “We want to be prepared as an alliance and we want to continue to be secure and as stable as before.”
‘Military object’ found in forest
Thursday’s meeting at the Polish presidential palace comes in the wake of the discovery of a “military object,” possibly a stray Russian missile, in a forest near the north-central city of Bydgoszcz in April.
Russian missile?
Announcing the results of a government inquiry, Defence Minister Mariusz Błaszczak said on May 11 that the Polish Armed Forces’ Airborne Operations Command had been alerted by Ukrainian officials about a possible Russian missile heading towards Poland on December 16.
The defence minister said that Poland in response raised combat readiness and Polish and American planes took off to monitor the situation, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
Moreover, "in line with procedures," the Airborne Operations Command notified the Polish Army’s Operational Commander, Gen. Tomasz Piotrowski, that “an unidentified object has entered Polish airspace,” according to Błaszczak.
But Błaszczak said the inquiry found Piotrowski "neglected to perform his duties by failing to inform" the government "about the object."
On May 12, Piotrowski issued a statement in which he urged “sense” and called on Poles not to let themselves be divided as a society amid a government inquiry into the “military object” found last month.
Also on May 12, the Polish defence ministry said that both Duda and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki had received its report on the discovery of the “military object.”
The report found “clear evidence” of “negligence” on the part of the Polish Army’s Operational Commander, the defence ministry said in its report, according to the PAP news agency.
'There are problems with procedures': president
President Duda said on Wednesday that had read the report “immediately” and “in depth” before handing the document to experts at his National Security Bureau (BBN) for further analysis.
Duda told reporters in Reykjavik, Iceland: “I have drawn my conclusions regarding this case … but the report is classified and cannot be discussed in detail with the media.”
The president said one of his conclusions was that “there are problems with procedures, because the procedures were drawn up a long time ago.”
'Some aspects are functioning well, while others less so'
He added that the security situation created by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “is unprecedented.”
Duda said that the Polish Army and the country’s politicians "haven’t found themselves in such a situation for decades.”
He added: “It’s a question of cooperation, of working together to accomplish various tasks, of civilian control over the army as well as of purely military matters.”
According to the president, “some aspects are functioning well, while others less so, or failed to function.”
Duda stated: “We are looking into this. We’ll be upgrading this, including NATO procedures.”
If mistakes were made, 'those responsible will be held accountable’
Meanwhile, the BBN’s Siewiera told reporters on Wednesday that “if mistakes are found to have been made, if duties are found to have been neglected” over the entry of the “military object” into Polish airspace, then those responsible “will be held accountable.”
He added that the incident must be explained “in a calm way” to ensure that “national security is not jeopardised through premature decisions,” Polish state news agency PAP reported.
Thursday is day 449 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP