Washington, US Vice President Kamala Harris’ trip to Warsaw to thank Poland for taking in hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s invasion took an unexpected turn before she even left Washington. She’ll be parachuting into the middle of unexpected diplomatic turbulence over fighter jets.
The Polish government came out with a plan to transfer its Russian-made fighter planes to a US military base in Germany, with the expectation that the planes would then be handed over to Ukrainian pilots trying to fend off Russian forces. In turn, the US would supply Poland with US-made jets with “corresponding capabilities.”
But the Poles didn’t run that idea past the Biden administration before going public with it, and the Pentagon quickly dismissed the idea as not tenable. Warplanes flying from a US and NATO base into airspace contested with Russia would raise the risk of the war expanding beyond Ukraine.
Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki yesterday (Tuesday) stressed that Poland’s support to Ukraine has been defensive and that any decision whether to make the MiG-29 planes available to Ukraine would be up to the US and NATO — and then only if all nations agreed.
Harris is expected to continue talks with the Poles about getting fighter jets to the Ukrainians during her visit to Warsaw, according to a senior US administration official who previewed the trip on the condition of anonymity. The matter remains a priority to the Biden administration, the official added.
Harris is slated to meet tomorrow (Thursday) with Polish President Andrzej Sebastian Duda and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki as well as with Ukrainians who have fled to Poland. She’ll also meet with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau while in Warsaw. Trudeau has been in Europe this week meeting with Ukraine allies.
Harris will travel on Friday to Bucharest, where she’s to meet Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, the Associated Press (AP) news reported.
Source: Oman News Agency