In These New Times

New Europe

5th July, 2010

Polish acting President Bronislaw Komorowski said on Thursday that he had asked the government to prepare a document defining Poland’s postulates concerning the date of the withdrawal of Polish troops from Afghanistan. The document for the Polish president is to be ready before a NATO summit in Lisbon in November, according to the PAP news agency. Komorowski, who is the frontrunner in a presidential runoff due on July 4, made the statement after a meeting of the National Security Council (RBN) on Thursday. Komorowski also said that he had asked the government to prepare a national strategy of withdrawal from Afghanistan as the debate in Lisbon might not be fully successful. He added that Poland should start reducing Polish troops in Afghanistan in 2011 in order to end the mission in 2012. “It is very significant that we do not think of keeping Polish soldiers in Afghanistan even a day longer than Americans,” he added. Poland has some 2,600 troops stationed in Afghan province of Ghanzi, part of the NATO-led multinational peacekeeping force International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).