Poland makes its Peace Board position clear; historic NATO post awaits 4-star general
Poland will not join Donald Trump’s so-called Board of Peace, PM Donald Tusk declared ahead of Wednesday’s cabinet meeting. His remarks were a response to an invitation Poland received to attend the body’s inaugural session, scheduled for February 19 in the US. Tusk said the decision was driven by concerns over the new organisation’s operating rules, legal status and concrete objectives, which observers say could make it a direct rival to the UN. At the same time, he stressed the government would continue to monitor developments closely, and remain flexible and open to reassessing its position. The statement marks the clearest position yet from Poland’s leadership. Until now, both Tusk and President Karol Nawrocki had relied on diplomatic ambiguity, seeking to preserve strong ties with the US administration while avoiding steps that could undermine Poland’s alliance with Ukraine – something that, in Warsaw’s view, would inevitably follow from sitting at the same table as Russian President Vladimir Putin, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko and other authoritarian leaders among the roughly 60 invited to join the organisation. From the outset, the invitation hads been a source of visible discomfort for Polish officials, who adopted an unwritten strategy of delaying a decision, citing constitutional procedures – a tactic that had “produced good results”, Tusk told reporters on Thursday, before leaving for Brussels to attend an informal summit of EU leaders. “Poland is not, and will not be, anyone’s vassal,” he said. “We will remain a loyal, reliable ally – but not a vassal in relations with any country in the world.”
Meanwhile, a Polish four-star general is set to take the helm of NATO’s Joint Force Command (JFC) Brunssum in the Netherlands, Warsaw’s military leadership announced on Tuesday. The headquarters is one of NATO’s three permanent joint force commands in Europe – alongside Naples in Italy and Norfolk in the United Kingdom – and plays a central role in shaping the alliance’s eastern-flank posture, including deterrence and reinforcement planning for Central and Eastern Europe. For the past two decades, JFC Brunssum has been led exclusively by German and Italian officers; a Polish general assuming the role represents “a significant sign of trust in the Polish Armed Forces and in our defence efforts,” Chief of the General Staff Gen. Wieslaw Kukula said on Tuesday. The specific nominee has yet to be announced. Poland currently has only two active four-star generals – Kukula himself and Gen. Slawomir Wojciechowski, Warsaw’s military representative to the NATO and EU Military Committees – one of whom is expected to replace Germany’s Gen. Ingo Hertz, who currently holds the post. The move comes as part of a broader reshuffle aimed at strengthening the role of European allies within NATO’s military leadership. On February 6, allies approved a new distribution of senior officer responsibility across the NATO Command Structure, with the UK set to lead JFC Norfolk and Italy JFC Naples. Responsibility for JFC Brunssum will rotate between Poland and Germany.