Ahead of the gathering, Turkey sparked concern after saying it would oppose the alliance’s defence plans for Poland and the Baltic states unless NATO accepted Turkey’s designation of certain groups as terrorists, including the Kurdish YPG militia.
But Lithuania’s president said on Wednesday that Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan had agreed to back the NATO plans, according to the Reuters news agency.
Duda, who spoke to Erdogan on Monday by phone, told reporters: “This summit is also a victory for Poland. This is full agreement for updating plans for the collective defence of Poland. This was very important for us.”
After the gathering in London ended on Wednesday afternoon, Duda said: "Given what some people wrote before the summit… various experts talked about a crisis in the North Atlantic Alliance, there were even those who predicted that it could mean the breakup of the North Atlantic Alliance... well, one can safely say: this summit is a success for the North Atlantic Alliance.”
Turkey’s warning over the NATO defence plan had added to doubts over the political future of the alliance, which was recently described by France’s Emmanuel Macron as experiencing “brain death,” according to Reuters.
However, in an interview published by Polish daily Rzeczpospolita on Tuesday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg reaffirmed the mutual defence clause at the heart of the alliance.
"Through the presence of NATO forces in Poland and in the Baltic countries, we are sending Russia a very strong signal: if there is an attack on Poland or the Baltic countries, the whole alliance will respond," Stoltenberg said.
The United States pledged to deploy around 1,000 extra troops to Poland, a staunch military ally, under a declaration signed by the Polish and US presidents at the White House in June.
In 2016, NATO announced it would deploy four multinational battalions to Poland and three Baltic countries, which fear potential Russian aggression following Moscow's annexation of Crimea in 2014.
(pk)
Source: PAP/TVN/Reuters