{"id":217962,"date":"2025-01-17T23:30:11","date_gmt":"2025-01-17T23:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/17\/polish-pm-says-he-dreams-of-a-breturn-as-uk-seeks-new-defence-pact-with-ally\/"},"modified":"2025-01-17T23:30:12","modified_gmt":"2025-01-17T23:30:12","slug":"polish-pm-says-he-dreams-of-a-breturn-as-uk-seeks-new-defence-pact-with-ally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/17\/polish-pm-says-he-dreams-of-a-breturn-as-uk-seeks-new-defence-pact-with-ally\/","title":{"rendered":"Polish PM says he ‘dreams’ of a ‘Breturn’ as UK seeks new defence pact with ally"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Poland’s prime minister has said he hopes for the “Breturn” of the UK as a member of the European Union – as he discussed a defence treaty with Sir Keir Starmer.<\/p>\n

Donald Tusk, who was hosting the prime minister for discussions on a UK-Polish defence pact in Warsaw, said it was his “dream” that “instead of a Brexit, we will have a Breturn”.<\/p>\n

Standing alongside Sir Keir at a joint news conference, the Polish premier also said he had discussed greater cooperation between the UK and the EU.<\/p>\n

Mr Tusk, who was the president of the European Council during the years that Britain left the EU, said: “For obvious reasons, we also discussed another issue, the cooperation between Great Britain and the European Union.<\/p>\n

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“I’m sure you will recall when we learned about the results of the Brexit referendum. I was head of the European Council… at that time. My first emotional reaction was to say: ‘I already miss you.’<\/p>\n

“I remember our press briefings as if it was yesterday. I already miss you, that’s what I said.”<\/p>\n

He added: “This is not just about emotions and sentiments – I am aware this is a dream of mine, that instead of a Brexit we will have a Breturn.<\/p>\n

“Perhaps I’m labouring under an illusion. I’d rather be an optimist and harbour these dreams in my heart – sometimes they come true in politics.”<\/p>\n

Sir Keir, who held the role of shadow Brexit secretary while Labour was in opposition<\/a><\/strong> and backed remain in the 2016 referendum, has repeatedly ruled out rejoining the customs union or single market.<\/p>\n

He has, however, said he wants to deepen post-Brexit ties with Brussels<\/p>\n

Mr Tusk was speaking after Sir Keir travelled to Poland to discuss a defence pact with the NATO ally – which Mr Tusk said he hoped would be ratified “this year”.<\/p>\n

The new treaty is designed to protect Europe from Russian<\/strong><\/a> aggression, tackle people-smuggling gangs, and combat misinformation and cyber threats.<\/p>\n

Sir Keir was also asked whether the UK’s attendance at a defence summit in Poland earlier this week meant he was in favour of “creating an army” for Europe – to which he replied he was not.<\/p>\n

Asked about the E5 defence ministers meeting in Warsaw and whether he supported creating a common European army, Sir Keir said: “The meeting that happened the other day is vitally important. That isn’t about creating armies.<\/p>\n

“It’s about how we share our security concerns and build on what we’ve already got.”<\/p>\n

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\n Sir Keir Starmer and his wife Victoria Starmer visit the Memorial And Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau. Pic: Reuters
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As part of the defence pact, a \u00a34bn partnership for new air defence systems in Poland has been agreed. The project will be headquartered in Bristol.<\/p>\n

“The UK has secured \u00a38bn of defence deals in Poland over the last three years alone, and we’re going further today, opening a new joint programme office in Bristol to deliver our \u00a34bn partnership, to deliver the next generation of air defence systems to Poland,” he said.<\/p>\n

He added: “We share an unbreakable commitment to NATO and an unbreakable commitment to Ukraine.”<\/p>\n

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During his visit to Poland, Sir Keir also made his first visit to Auschwitz, which he described as “utterly harrowing”.<\/p>\n

The prime minister visited the former Nazi concentration camp, where he laid a wreath ahead of the 80th anniversary of its liberation.<\/p>\n

After he and his wife Victoria, who is Jewish, visited the site, Sir Keir<\/strong><\/a> said: “Nothing could prepare me for the sheer horror of what I have seen in this place. It is utterly harrowing.<\/p>\n

“The mounds of hair, the shoes, the suitcases, the names and details, everything that was so meticulously kept, except for human life.”<\/p>\n

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\n Sir Keir Starmer and his wife Victoria Starmer visit the Memorial And Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau. Pic: Reuters
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His visit to Poland came following a surprise trip to Kyiv on Thursday, where he reiterated his support for Ukraine and suggested that British troops could be deployed to the country as part of peacekeeping efforts.<\/p>\n

In an exclusive interview with Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby<\/strong><\/a>, Sir Keir said the UK would play its “full part” in any peace negotiations – including by deploying British troops for peacekeeping – though added that he did not want “to get ahead of ourselves”.<\/p>\n

During his visit, Sir Keir also met Polish businesses, including the firm InPost which has announced it will invest a further \u00a3600m into the UK in the next five years to grow its operations.<\/p>\n

It is thought that the overall \u00a31bn investment by the firm, which operates parcel lockers, could support up to 12,000 new jobs.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Poland’s prime minister has said he hopes for the “Breturn” of the UK as a member of the European Union – as he discussed a defence treaty with Sir Keir Starmer. Donald Tusk, who was hosting the prime minister for discussions on a UK-Polish defence pact in Warsaw, said it was his “dream” that “instead […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217963,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/25\/01\/768x432\/skynews-keir-starmer-wife-victoria_6802202.jpg?20250117134632","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[603],"tags":[143,171769,912,1703,9697,34137,5113],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217962"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217962"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":217964,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217962\/revisions\/217964"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}