Thread by @SlawomirDebski

👉 During today’s press conference Polish FM @RauZbigniew summed up 🇵🇱 successful evacuation from Kabul (1232 ppl)
& two decades of Poland’s engagement in #Afghanistan 👉 He said that it was a spectacular foreign policy success for a number of reasons [thread 1/9]

https://twitter.com/PolandMFA/status/1433147975677661188

After #9/11, PL declared allied solidarity with the United States. A NATO member since 1999, Poland dispatched troops to Afghanistan, thus becoming a contributor, and not just a consumer of U.S. & #NATO security guarantees. 2/9

press.armywarcollege.edu/cgi/viewconten…

.@NATO was expected to „get out of area or out of business". Poland considered strengthening NATO to be in its vital national interest. All presidents, PMs&FMs since 1999 have been working tirelessly towards that goal. Afghan operation was central to it.

Contributing to this mission had another important rationale: justifying and facilitating subsequent NATO enlargements.

In 2004 Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Slovaks, Romanians, Bulgarians and Slovenians joined the Alliance. 4/9

nytimes.com/2004/04/03/wor…

Polish soldiers in Afghanistan opened the door to NATO for these nations. A bigger, stronger NATO means more security for Poland. There's a straight line btn Polish military’s work in Afghanistan and U.S. military presence on NATO's eastern flank today.5/9
army.mil/article/193970…

Polish service members sometimes paid the ultimate price. 44 of them had fallen. Another 361 were injured & 869 wounded. @RauZbigniew honoured them and thanked for their sacrifice, courage and valor which made Poland, Europe and the West more secure. 6/9
bbc.com/news/world-eur…

Poland set off for the Afghan mission primarily to assist the U.S. when such assistance was requested by our allies. Boosting NATO credibility was also on the agenda. On both accounts, Poland can consider its engagement in Afghanistan to be a success. 7/9

globalmilitaryreview.blogspot.com/2011/05/polish…

The recent evac operation from Kabul was the final chapter of this saga. 🇵🇱 delivered again, quickly assembling an effective,dedicated team of diplomats &soldiers who under harshest of conditions evacuated 1,232 Poles/Afghans/Americans/Germans/Lithuanians polishnews.co.uk/afghanistan-ev…

The bottom line is: credibility matters. Poland has been consistently building its allied credibility for well over 2 decades, regardless of who stood at the helm. Poland will remain a credible and trustworthy member of the West—traits& qualities it had proved in Afghanistan #END