Poland became a full member of NATO in March 1999. Poland promoted its NATO candidacy through energetic participation in the Partnership for Peace (PfP) program and through intensified individual dialogue between Poland and NATO. Poland was invited in the first wave of NATO enlargement at the July 1997 NATO Summit in Madrid.

Poland also has forged ahead on its economic integration with the West, joining the EU in May 2004. Previously, it became an associate member of the EU and its defensive arm, the Western European Union, in 1994. In the June 2003 national referendum, the Polish people approved EU accession by an overwhelming margin. Poland achieved full OECD membership in 1996.

Changes since 1989 have redrawn the map of central Europe, and Poland has had to forge relationships with seven new neighbors. Poland has actively pursued good relations with all its neighbors, signing friendship treaties replacing links severed by the collapse of the Warsaw Pact. The Poles have forged special relationships with Lithuania and particularly Ukraine in an effort to firmly anchor these states to the West.

U.S.-POLISH RELATIONS
The United States established diplomatic relations with the newly formed Polish Republic in April 1919. After Gomulka came to power in 1956, relations with the United States began to improve. However, during the 1960s, reversion to a policy of full and unquestioning support for Soviet foreign policy objectives and anti-Semitic feelings in Poland caused those relations to stagnate. U.S.-Polish relations improved significantly after Gierek succeeded Gomulka and expressed his interest in improving relations with the United States. A consular agreement was signed in 1972.

In 1974 Gierek was the first Polish leader to visit the United States. This action, among others, demonstrated that both sides wish to facilitate better relations.

The birth of Solidarity in 1980 raised the hope that progress would be made in Poland’s external relations as well as in its domestic development. During this time, the United States provided $765 million in agricultural assistance. Human rights and individual freedom issues, however, were not improved upon, and the U.S. revoked Poland’s most-favored-nation (MFN) status in response to the Polish Government’s decision to ban Solidarity. MFN status was reinstated in 1987, and diplomatic relations were upgraded.

The United States and Poland have enjoyed warm bilateral relations since 1989. Every post-1989 Polish Government has been a strong supporter of continued American military and economic presence in Europe and has identified membership in NATO, the European Union, and other Western security and economic structures as Poland’s principal foreign policy priority. Poland served successfully as the Chairman in Office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in 1998. It has supported the Global War on Terror, contributed to Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and been a leader in the coalition in Iraq, where it has deployed some 2,400 troops. Poland cooperates closely with American diplomacy on such issues as nuclear proliferation, human rights, regional cooperation in central and eastern Europe, and UN reform.