Election in America: Romney Gives Poland an Opening (Rzeczpospolita,
Poland)
"It turns out
that for the Romney camp, the issue of Poland is more important than the war in
Afghanistan, China's economic growth or the situation in the Arab world - as these
were completely forgotten during his 35-minute speech acceptance speech. ... after
the politician wins the election, we will need to hold him to his word."
Mitt Romney at Poland's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier: Will he be a better advocate for Poland than Barack Obama?
Thanks to Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, U.S.
foreign policy toward Poland, is no longer only a secondary or tertiary concern
of American diplomacy. The question is: can we take an advantage of the
situation?
Foreign policy during a party convention is usually a
secondary issue, unless America is involved in a conflict bringing harsh media coverage.
Not surprisingly, the Republican candidate for president devoted just a few
sentences to diplomacy in his convention speech in Tampa. Mr. Romney spoke of
the killing of Osama bin Laden, and the current administration “throwing Israel
under the bus,” easing sanctions on Cuba and leaving Poland in the lurch by abandoning
missile defense. He also announced a hardening of policy toward Russia.
Poles already heard these comments from Romney during his
visit to Gdansk and Warsaw. But now he said them to a prime-time audience
of tens of millions of Americans on Thursday night, when they tuned in to hear what
the official Republican candidate for president had to say.
It turns out that for the Romney camp, the issue of Poland
is more important than the war in Afghanistan, China's economic growth or the
situation in the Arab world- these were completely forgotten in his 35-minute
speech.
Of course, his is a policy that depends most of all on who receives
the most votes in the November election: at this stage of the campaign, every word
uttered has a specific public purpose. Mr. Romney’s recent visit to the Vistula
River showed that the voices of Americans of Polish origin are important to his
electoral chiefs of staff.
Posted by Worldmeets.US
The question is: what lessens should Polish diplomacy draw
from this? These are obvious. Mr. Obama is not destined to win. In Washington,
we still have the unresolved question of abolishing visas for Poles and increasing
U.S. security guarantees for Poland, not to mention access to capital and new
technologies for exploiting shale gas [fracking]. This
last item would thwart Russia’s plans. [Moscow would prefer that Poland
continue to by gas from Russia].
Although Polish diplomacy needs to focus on European issues,
it has a lot to gain in D.C. Years ago, during his stay in the United States,
Foreign Minister RadosławSikorski
associated himself with the conservative community and groups like the American
Enterprise Institute and the New Atlantic Initiative. He should have little
trouble establishing closer contacts with Mr. Romney’s camp, without giving up on
dialogue with the current administration. And after the politician wins the
election, we will need to hold him to his word.
