Poland attended the October 30-31 talks in Atlanta at the invitation of the United States, which holds this year’s G20 presidency. Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski, who is also deputy prime minister, sat next to host Rubio during plenary sessions.
“Poland is making enormous progress both in the economy and in security, because it puts its own national interests and the wellbeing of its citizens first”, Rubio said, adding that President Donald Trump would like Poland at G20 meetings next year too.
“Sympathy from the United States for Poland’s full membership in the G20 is evident”, Sikorski said. “Thanks to these two days of meetings we certainly have a better sense of where we still need to persuade and where we already have solid support for our permanent presence in this forum”.
He did not say whether Poland would attend future G20 meetings as a full participant or as a guest.
Poland’s pitch
Sikorski held about 10 bilateral meetings on the sidelines, including with counterparts from India, Brazil, Canada, Saudi Arabia and South Korea. He told the forum Poland speaks for a region of nearly 150 million people stretching from Scandinavia to the Black Sea.
Poland was the poorest country in its region in 1990, he said, but after 35 years of uninterrupted growth it has a USD 1 trillion economy, ranking 20th in the world.
“Our story of how one can rise to modernity and prosperity not in a one-party system with a command economy, but in a democratic system with an open economy, is worth repeating”, Sikorski said.
He has repeatedly said Poland wants to share its experience with countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, noting that, unlike many Western states, it has no colonial past.
What next
Sikorski said Britain, which hosts next year’s G20 summit in Manchester, had invited Prime Minister Donald Tusk. Asked why President Karol Nawrocki would not be going, he joked: “The British also have a Charles as head of state, but it’s inconceivable to them that Charles would muscle in on international meetings against the government”.
South Korea, which takes over the G20 presidency after Britain, has pledged its support for Poland’s presence. “Korea very warmly assured us of its support”, Sikorski said.
Nawrocki will represent Poland at this year’s leaders’ summit, to be held in mid-December at Trump’s Doral golf resort in Miami.
Zelensky at G20?
Trump said on Saturday he was willing to invite Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the Miami summit and that the war in Ukraine would end in the “not too distant future”.
“I would do it. No problem”, Trump told reporters at a Halloween party at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.
Rubio said the decision was Trump’s and did not rule it out. “Especially if something positive came out of his presence”, he said on the sidelines of the Atlanta meeting.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been invited, though Rubio said he did not know whether he would come. Zelensky has not yet received a formal invitation.
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Source: PAP, Polish Radio