The conversation between Poland's Paweł Soloch and Jakub Kumoch, on the one hand, and America's Jake Sullivan, on the other, took place via telephone on Monday, the state PAP news agency reported.
Soloch and Kumoch, who are aides to Polish President Andrzej Duda, said the discussion took place at the request of Washington in the context of ongoing allied consultations over the threat of Russian aggression against Ukraine.
“The conversation centred on the situation around Ukraine and relations between NATO and Russia,” Soloch told the Polish news agency afterwards.
"We share the view that US-Russia talks should reflect the stance of the whole alliance," he added. "This applies especially to the response to Russia’s most aggressive demands.”
Meanwhile, Kumoch, who is the Polish president’s chief foreign policy advisor, said he had briefed Sullivan on Duda's recent meeting between his Ukrainian and Lithuanian counterparts.
“I emphasised how important it is for Poland that Ukraine is secure and that there is an independent Belarus,” Kumoch added.
Jakub Kumoch. Photo: Krzysztof Gumul/KPRP/prezydent.pl
NATO response
Soloch and Kumoch also told the media that during their conversation with Sullivan, they stressed that NATO must speak with one voice, while its response to threats against Ukraine must be “decisive and tough.”
The talks explored “the directions of a NATO response” in the event of Russian aggression against Ukraine, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
The Polish president's National Security Bureau (BBN), which is headed by Soloch, tweeted that the discussion followed up on US President Joe Biden’s remote meeting with Duda and other leaders from the Bucharest Nine (B9) group of countries earlier this month.
After that get-together, America's Sullivan held talks with B9 national security advisors in mid-December.
The Bucharest Nine is a Polish-Romanian initiative launched in 2015 that aims to help exchange views and coordinate positions on the security of NATO’s eastern-flank countries. It brings together Poland, Romania, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, and Slovakia.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP