Election in the US: A Chance for Poland

Thanks to the Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney the U.S. foreign policy toward Poland is no longer a third-rate or even secondary issue of the American diplomacy. The question is can we make good use of it?

Foreign policy is usually a minor subject in party conventions unless America is involved in any difficult, media-related conflict. No wonder that the Republican presidential candidate in his speech dedicated just a dozen or so sentences to diplomacy during the party convention in Tampa. He mentioned Osama bin Laden’s death, that Israel has been “thrown under the bus” by the present administration while sanctions have been eased against Cuba, and Obama’s abandonment of Poland by walking away from plans to build a missile defense complex. He also announced a tougher policy toward Russia.

Poles have already heard those words from Romney during his visits to Gdansk and Warsaw. But now he said them to tens of millions of Americans who turned on their TV sets on Thursday night to hear what the official Republican candidate for president has to say.

It turned out that [Poland’s security] is exactly the issue that is most important for Romney’s camp, more important than the war in Afghanistan, China’s economic increase and the situation in the Arab countries, issues that were completely unmentioned in his 35-minute speech.

Of course, this is an election year and any policy announcements are focused first and foremost toward winning over voters in November. At this stage of the campaign every word said in public has its specific purpose. Romney’s recent visit to Poland showed that the votes of the Americans of Polish descent matter for the chiefs of the campaign teams.

The question of what conclusions the Polish diplomacy should draw is very legitimate. Barack Obama isn’t destined for victory in the election race. In Washington we still have the unresolved question of whether to abolish visas or increase U.S. safety guarantees to the Polish, not to mention access to capital and new technologies for shale gas exploitation. The latter will also thwart Russia’s plans.

Even though Polish diplomacy must concentrate on European issues, it has a lot to win in Washington. Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Radosław Sikorski, who was associated with the conservative American Enterprise Institute and New Atlantic Initiative communities during his stay in the U.S. years ago, should not have much difficulty establishing closer ties to the Romney camp while also maintaining a dialogue with the current administration. And after the victory, the politician should be held to his words.