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Poland to update foreign policy, new PM says

Kopacz's focus is a departure from that of the previous administration of Donald Tusk.

By Ed Adamczyk

WARSAW, Poland, Oct. 1 (UPI) -- Poland will update its foreign policy and concentrate on its security, Eva Kopacz, Poland's new Prime Minister, told Parliament Wednesday.

In her first speech in her new position, Kopacz distanced herself from the previous administration's position that Ukraine should align itself with the West at any cost.

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"We support pro-European direction of Ukraine but we won't supplant Ukrainians in reforming their country," she said, ordering her foreign minister, to redraft Poland's foreign policy quickly. She added she sought to avoid an "isolation of Poland" within the West that could be provoked by setting "unrealistic goals" for Ukraine.

"The goal of my government will be a pragmatic policy toward what's going on in Ukraine. The key matter for Poland is for fighting in Ukraine to stop and for the Ukrainian state to consolidate."

Kopacz's predecessor, Donald Tusk, left Polish politics to become President of the European Union's European Council. Most of his administration resigned with him, including Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, who was a strident critic of Russian policy toward Ukraine.

On the same day, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker met with Polish and U.S. business leaders in Warsaw, and called for improvement of commercial ties between the two countries. She noted U.S. companies have invested over $30 billion in Poland since 1990, and said, "We know that we are missing an opportunity to work much closer together. It is in our mutual best interest to have stronger economic ties between our countries, our businesses and our people."

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