The recent meeting between Polish President Andrzej Duda and Donald Trump could have helped to push the latest aid package for Ukraine over the line in the House of Representatives, Western media has claimed.
According to The Economist weekly magazine and CBS news network, the pair’s two-hour dinner meeting at Trump Tower in New York last week was instrumental in unlocking the funds being held up by Republicans in Congress.
The Economist noted that the aid package for Ukraine was delayed and that it would take time for the equipment to reach the Ukrainian frontline, and even then it will not solve the problem of the lack of soldiers that Ukraine faces. There is no doubt that the complicated political situation in the U.S. during a presidential election year has not helped, but despite Trump’s reservations about aid for Ukraine, in the end, he did not want to block it, as he is all too aware of the consequences of the geopolitical fallout from a Ukrainian defeat.
The meeting with Poland’s President Duda, a fellow conservative nationalist who is also staunchly anti-Russian, may have swayed Trump, who seems to value his good relations with Poland and its president. The Economist also speculated that the fact there is a loan element in the aid deal was a face-saving aspect for Trump. The weekly magazine added that Russian President Vladimir Putin could not automatically count on a Trump presidency to help the Russian president achieve his war objectives of seizing Ukraine and dividing the West.
CBS also reported that the Trump-Duda meeting in New York helped in breaking the impasse over the aid package for Ukraine. There is no doubt in the minds of the broadcaster that the meeting between the two men included a lengthy discussion on the conflict in Ukraine.
The U.S. broadcaster stated there was little coincidence that the package was pushed through in the U.S. House of Representatives just a few days after the meeting.
In Poland, however, much of the liberal media have been downplaying the effects of the meeting of the two presidents, and Paweł Kowal, a prominent politician from Donald Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition (KO), even claimed that it was Tusk’s stance in favor of Ukraine that was the key.
This view has been ridiculed in conservative media, which noted that all Tusk did was post on social media attacking Republican politicians and that it was Duda taking the time to engage in dialogue with the former U.S. president that served as a real diplomatic solution.
The coverage in CBS and The Economist points to Duda and not Tusk having sway over Donald Trump and thereby being Poland’s best card in its relations with the United States. It suggests the Polish president is capable of working with both Trump and Biden, whereas Donald Tusk can only relate to the Democratic party establishment.
