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But those officials do speak for the two strongest economies in the EU, from which Eastern Europe also depends. And Poland’s complaining too about the prices o

by blub 4y ago

But those officials do speak for the two strongest economies in the EU, from which Eastern Europe also depends. And Poland’s complaining too about the prices of Norwegian gas. Turns out the government forgot to negotiate long-term contracts and they have to pay market prices.

lo_zamoyski 4y ago
Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that Poland has only rosy things to say about the US (it doesn't). But we may speak about varying degrees of criticism, especially in context. Polish spending on American military equipment (but not only: see S. Korean purchases) and energy technology (Bechtel/Westinghouse, for example) has been increasing. Even before the war, at least some diplomats were disappointed with the high prices being negotiated for military equipment (I can recall such criticisms as far back as the Kwasniewski presidency), but Poland continues to negotiate and make new US purchases, and intends to increase military spending from 2.4% to 5% (see article linked in my original post). The terms under which American presence in Poland were negotiated are also very favorable for the US. In fact, terms are in general favorable for the US, even if it comes at a significant cost to Poland (I cannot judge how optimal the political/diplomatic calculus is). My point is that I have not seen evidence of any uptick in Polish criticism beyond the usual airing of grievances. Of course, if that has happened, and military contractors are raising prices artificially or ridiculously, I would kindly ask for a reference. W.r.t. Norwegian gas, yes, I recall several months ago, the Polish prime minister did indeed criticize Norway, but I thought we were talking about new EU criticism of the US? In another comment, I did explicitly refrain from commenting on price gouging surrounding gas as I don't know to what degree that is occurring (my original post was specifically related to defense, which perhaps was not clear except by implication given the link).

by blub 4y ago

lo_zamoyski 4y ago

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that Poland has only rosy things to say about the US (it doesn't). But we may speak about varying degrees of criticism, especially in context. Polish spending on American military equipment (but not only: see S. Korean purchases) and energy technology (Bechtel/Westinghouse, for example) has been increasing. Even before the war, at least some diplomats were disappointed with the high prices being negotiated for military equipment (I can recall such criticisms as far back as the Kwasniewski presidency), but Poland continues to negotiate and make new US purchases, and intends to increase military spending from 2.4% to 5% (see article linked in my original post). The terms under which American presence in Poland were negotiated are also very favorable for the US. In fact, terms are in general favorable for the US, even if it comes at a significant cost to Poland (I cannot judge how optimal the political/diplomatic calculus is). My point is that I have not seen evidence of any uptick in Polish criticism beyond the usual airing of grievances. Of course, if that has happened, and military contractors are raising prices artificially or ridiculously, I would kindly ask for a reference. W.r.t. Norwegian gas, yes, I recall several months ago, the Polish prime minister did indeed criticize Norway, but I thought we were talking about new EU criticism of the US? In another comment, I did explicitly refrain from commenting on price gouging surrounding gas as I don't know to what degree that is occurring (my original post was specifically related to defense, which perhaps was not clear except by implication given the link).