Ambassador
Victor Ashe

Greetings from Warsaw!

First, on behalf of President Bush and all Americans, I wish to extend my deepest sympathy to the families and friends of the 20 Polish soldiers lost in the Polish Air Force transport crash in Miroslawiec.  We admire the steadfast courage and commitment of Poland’s armed services, and honor these heroes who died in the line of duty.  Our prayers and deepest sympathy go out to the Polish nation and to the bereaved family members and loved ones of those who were lost.

We began 2008 with high level meetings of Polish officials to the United States and U.S. officials to Poland.  Minister of Defense Bogdan Klich was in Washington, DC to meet with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to discuss U.S.-Polish military cooperation and the possibility of placing 10 ballistic missile interceptors in Poland.  Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Dan Fried, former U.S. Ambassador to Poland, came to Warsaw to meet with Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski, President Lech Kaczynski and Prime Minister Donald Tusk, to discuss similar issues and U.S.-Polish cooperation.  Last week, Minister Sikorski visited Washington where he met with Vice President Cheney and was hosted at a luncheon by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in what has been a flurry of collaboration across the Atlantic. 

Mid-month, I was honored to present a lifetime achievement award to an icon of Polish agricultural research, Henryk Jasiorowski, whose contributions to the field of agriculture worldwide over the past 40 years has been vast and important.

We at the U.S. Embassy proudly co-sponsored a Holocaust education conference in Warsaw focused on stories of Poles who risked, and sometimes sacrificed their lives to save their Jewish neighbors during the Nazi occupation of Poland from 1939 to 1945.  Invited participants were alumni of Holocaust education teacher training programs in the United States and Israel, and used the conference to share teaching methods and curriculums, and discussed how they were applying in the classroom what they had learned in previous training. 

We were also pleased to sponsor two American jazz ensembles to tour Poland.  The Dan Tepfer Trio and the Anthony Cox/Adam Pieronczyk Quartet played several dates around Poland during the month, to great reviews and large crowds.  Our cultural outreach continues to be very well-received and a great showpiece of public diplomacy.

In mid-January, Dell opened its facility in Lodz, which will employ 1,200 Polish workers and bring the U.S. computer manufacturing sector closer to its European market.  In Gdansk on January 29 Mayor Paweł Adamowicz and I co-signed a grant agreement from the U.S. Trade and Development Agency that will lead to the enhancement of the city’s emergency management capabilities, including communications and command and control.  With this agreement, Gdansk will be the first Polish city to modernize its crisis management system with U.S. financing.

Finally, the Embassy’s Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) Kenneth Hillas will depart Warsaw in mid-February for a new assignment in Iraq and training in Washington.  We all appreciate his service here over the past two and a half years and wish him the best.  I have asked Political Counselor Mary Curtin to become DCM effective February 13 and to remain in the job until the end of April, when Pam Quansrud, the permanent DCM will assume the responsibility. 

I continue to enjoy receiving your comments and thoughts on this newsletter, and will always respond to you personally if you send me a message at AsheVH@state.gov.

Sincerely yours,

Victor Ashe

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