Staff | TVN24

In his speech on “The American Day” event marking the 40 years of the KARTA center, US Ambassador to Poland Mark Brzezinski spoke about the Polish-American relations. “Our nations must have a common, shared set of values,” he said, adding that Poland and America should uphold the standards both countries have shared for two centuries. Ambassador Brzezinski also stressed that both the two nations should keep on helping Ukraine because “America and Poland today share the same freedom, but Ukraine does not”.

The KARTA Center Foundation, the US Embassy in Poland, and POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews organized an event on Tuesday (May 10) titled “The American Day”. It was a one-day program, open to the public and held under the auspices of the US Embassy in Poland – in the context of the 40th anniversary of KARTA.

The purpose of the event was to present Polish-American relations in the years 1917-2022, focusing in particular on the role of the United States in Poland’s regaining independence in 1918, supporting the democratic dimension of Polish statehood, and now – the defense of peace.

One of the elements of the event was a speech by US Ambassador Mark Brzezinski, who said that “above all else, our nations must have a common, shared set of values”.

“Liberal democracy tries to capture the essence of the autonomy of the individual, spelled out in terms of the crisis now, it means helping a neighbor who is hungry or a nation fighting for its freedom,” he added.

“It means taking up the banner American and Poles alike have held for two centuries, and carrying it as our standard as we fight for freedom and independence in this region. America and Poland today share the same freedom, but Ukraine does not. It’s our responsibility to do our part. A responsibility we’ve accepted for the greater good, “Mark Brzezinski said.

Debate on democracy and peace

The speech by the ambassador was preceeded by a Polish-American debate on joint protection of peace, moderated by the host of “Horyzont” program in TVN24 BiS, Jacek Stawiski. In the first part of the panel, the guests watched Stawiski’s interviews with Poland’s Ambassador to the United Nations Krzysztof Szczerski, Pulitzer Prize winner and a columnist at “The Atlantic” Anne Applebaum, as well as with former US Ambassadors to Poland Daniel Fried and Thomas Simons.

The second part of the panel was attended by Poland’s Ambassador to Afghanistan Piotr Łukasiewicz, former Poland’s Ambassador to the USA and Germany Janusz Reiter, and Eugeniusz Smolar from the Center for International Relations.

Source: TVN24