Don’t expect too much from Obama visit, says American academic

Poles should be more down to earth when considering their relations with the USA, advises Charles Kupchan , political analyst from the University in Georgetown. Speaking to Polish Radio, Kupchan said that Poland should accept the fact that it is no central to US foreign policy

“Poland got used to being in an elevated position in its relations with the US - first during the Clinton years, following the fall of the Berlin Wall, then during the Bush years when Poland took the lead in supporting the US in Iraq and Afghanistan,” the academic said.

“What is happening now is that we are seeing a period of normalization [in relations]. Poland is becoming a more normal ally, which is good for Poland but it does creates a tension between expectations and reality,“ he said.

Schedule

President Obama is scheduled to touch down at Warsaw’s Okecie military airport at 17.50 CET, when he flies in from France following the G8 summit on Thursday.

The US president will be driven straight from the airport to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the centre of town. He will then be taken to the Warsaw Jewish Ghetto Uprising monument a few blocks to pay his respects.

President Obama will then go to the Presidential Palace where he will be having a working dinner with President Bronislaw Komorowski and 19 other presidents from the region who are attending the Central and Eastern European summit in Warsaw.
On Saturday, President Komorowski will officially welcome Barack Obama to Poland for his first ever visit to the country at 10.25 CET outside the Presidential Palace, after which the two heads of state will have official talks on trade – particularly the newly discovered shale gas deposits found in Poland - the stationing of American F-16s and troops in Poland and cooperation in Afghanistan and NATO.

President Obama will then meet with heads of all major political parties in Poland and then go on to have brunch with Prime Minister Donald Tusk at 12.30 CET.

Finally at around 15.00 CET President Obama will lay a wreath at the Smolensk Plaque at the Field Cathedral of the Polish Armed Forces, in memory of the 96 who died, including President Lech Kaczynski, during the air disaster in western Russia on 10 April last year.

The US president will then head back to the airport and fly back to Washington.
President Obama has been on a four-nation tour of Europe this week, taking in Ireland, UK, France as well as Poland. (pg/ab)