Ambassador Victor Ashe

September was very active. It began with a U.S. exhibit at the 15th International Defense Industry Exhibition in Kielce, where the United States served as Lead Nation. I represented the United States, along with Claude Bolton, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology, at what is one of the largest defense industry trade fairs in Europe.

As every year, we welcomed new staff and family to the mission in Poland at our annual newcomers’ picnic. Our new Agricultural Counselor, Eric Wenberg, arrived later in September. New Fulbright scholars were welcomed as a diverse group here to conduct research and teach at the university level all over Poland in the coming year. We celebrated our 10th annual joint Embassy-Wprost Magazine competition with an awards ceremony, where we honored the best up-and-coming Polish journalists. Mid-month, I traveled to Zakopane in the Tatras mountains to participate in a signing ceremony for an historic sister-park agreement between Rocky Mountain National Park, and the trans-border Tatras National Parks of Poland and Slovakia. Finally, a U.S. Renewable and Alternative Energy Trade Mission visited Poland late in the month to introduce American environmental technology companies to the Polish market.

Perhaps the biggest news for us in September was President Bush signing into law the "United States-Poland Parliamentary Youth Exchange Program Act of 2007." The legislation, sponsored by Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN), authorizes an educational exchange program for secondary school students between the United States and Poland. This is a wonderful development, establishing a bilateral youth exchange modeled after the highly successful Congress-Budestag Exchange between the United States and Germany. With pilot funding of $500,000 from the State Department, the program promises to be just as successful, and will soon be off to a great start.

Bridging the last week of September and the first week of October the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) held their Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (HDIM), its most important human rights event of the year. Ambassador Richard S. Williamson led the U.S. delegation to the meeting, where representatives of governments and civil society from the 56 participating countries reviewed human rights commitments and monitoring. OSCE Ambassador Julie Finley was here too.

Important missile defense talks were held on October 2-3 in Warsaw as we continue discussions toward an agreement on basing ten interceptors in Poland. In mid-month, I’ll travel to Bucharest for the annual “Visigrad” conference, a meeting of Chiefs of Mission from the U.S. Embassies in Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, as well as Romania, Bulgaria, OSCE and Slovenia to discuss shared policy issues.

Poland’s biggest event in October is the upcoming parliamentary elections on October 21. Our friendship with Poland remains very strong, and we expect to continue to enjoy a solid bi-lateral relationship with whomever Polish voters choose to represent them in the next government.

I received a number of comments in September regarding the newsletter, and always appreciate hearing your views. Please keep your ideas coming always, I’m reachable on email at AsheVH@state.gov; I answer each one myself. I hope you have a great October, and look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely yours,

Victor Ashe
U.S. Ambassador to Poland

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