2024-04-23 14:52:29
Duda’s plans to meet privately with Trump during his visit to New York drew mixed reactions in Poland. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk was skeptical of such a meeting, but expressed hope that the president “will have a very firm position on the issue of [Trampam] one must very clearly stand on the side of the Western world, democracy and Europe”.
Meanwhile, Nausėda, who will meet with Duda this week in Lithuania, expressed confidence that the Polish president’s conversation with Trump was successful.
“Lately, I hear about Donald Trump’s different rhetoric and [redzu] readiness of the US authorities to make necessary and long-awaited decisions. I think that [Dudas] the visit and talks with Donald Trump were positive, gave a positive result, and I am very pleased with this success of Andrzej Duda,” Nausėdas was quoted as saying by Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT.
Trump’s position on Ukraine has been ambiguous, and he has expressed opposition to providing Kyiv with billions of dollars in military aid. Even his most ardent supporters in the US Congress opposed it. However, just a day after Trump and Duda met in New York, the former US president admitted for the first time that Ukraine’s survival in the war with Russia is important to the US.
“Everyone agrees that Ukraine’s survival and strength in Europe should be more important than ours, but it’s also important to us! Get moving, Europe!” Trump urged in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.
“It was a friendly meeting in a nice atmosphere,” Duda described Wednesday’s conversation with Trump, explaining that “he is my friend and we had four great years together.” In 2016-2020, Trump was the president of the USA and Duda was the president of Poland.
Duda, who is a former member of the national conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, has never hidden his admiration for Trump. Duda is also a staunch supporter of Ukraine and has called on the US to provide more military aid to Ukraine in its fight against Russian invasion, but this funding has been delayed for months by Trump’s allies in the US Congress.
The Polish president said about Trump that “he is doing a fantastic job. The Polish people love him, really love him.”
On Saturday, the US House of Representatives, with the support of members of both parties, approved the long-delayed military aid package for Ukraine in the amount of 61 billion dollars.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi welcomed the decision of the House of Representatives, the final approval of which both senators and US President Joe Biden have promised not to put obstacles in the way. Zelensky stressed that US military and economic support “will save thousands and thousands of lives.” NATO and European Union officials and member states also welcomed the US decision.
2024-04-23 14:52:29