After signing defence pacts with France and UK, Warsaw is signing one with Germany on Wednesday but its sweep was trimmed fearing right-wing opposition and the prospect of a presidential veto.
Poland -- the only NATO member to border both Russia and Ukraine -- has sought to bolster its defence in more than four years of Moscow’s invasion next door.
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It has doubled down on treaties with European allies as the future of US troops on the continent has come under question.
The Polish and German defence ministers are due to sign agreements in Warsaw to mark 35 years since the 1991 Treaty of Good Neighbourship, which opened a new chapter in ties after the Cold War.
Warsaw-Berlin ties have improved since pro-EU Donald Tusk returned to power, after years of tense relations during hard-right governments in Warsaw.
But, according to Warsaw, Wednesday’s agreements will build on an existing 2011 framework, mainly covering cooperation in the Baltic Sea, infrastructure and cybersecurity.
They will stop short of including mutual security clauses outside existing NATO and EU commitments.
Polish media reports said there were plans for a more ambitious pact, but Tusk’s government opted for a reduced version, expecting opposition from nationalist president Karol Nawrocki and the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party.
“We all know Law and Justice’s and the president’s obsession with anything to do with Germany, so of course he would veto it,” Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told Polish media this month, referring to Nawrocki.
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