Financial Times: Nato treats Poland like a buffer state, says new president

(Financial Times) – Polish president Andrzej Duda has criticised Nato for treating Poland like a “buffer zone” rather than a fully fledged member facing a resurgent Russia and urged the alliance to place permanent bases in the former Soviet bloc country.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Duda, a conservative elected in May, said Nato was failing to implement its stated policies and had not adapted its strategy on its eastern border following Russia’s “imperialist actions” in Ukraine and Georgia.

“We do not want to be the buffer zone. We want to be the real eastern flank of the alliance,” said Mr Duda. “Today, when we look at the dispersion of bases . . . then the borderline is Germany.

“Nato has not yet taken note of the shift . . .  of Poland from the east to the west,” he added. “Nato is supposed to be here to protect the alliance . . .  If Poland and other central European countries constitute the real flank of Nato, then it seems natural to me, a logical conclusion, that bases should be placed in those countries.”

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