During his tour of Europe, President Obama paid a visit to Warsaw, Poland on May 27, 2011. This was President Obama’s first visit to Poland as the U.S. President. Along President Obama’s comments of “being a bit Polish,” due to his living in Chicago and admiring the resilience of the Poles, he secured a deal that the U.S. F-16s would train in Poland starting this July. This new development provides a security among many Poles that the U.S. is looking after Central and Eastern Europe.
President Obama emphasized the positive opportunities with the U.S. building relations with Russia: “I am a strong believer that the reset between the United States and Russia has benefitted this region…Because it’s reduced tensions and has, I think, facilitated genuine dialogue about how each country can move forward.” This viewpoint is a struggle for the older generation of Poles, those who lived through WWII, to agree with.
Obama recognized that Poland is the only EU nation that resisted the recession: “We are also aiming to expand our bilateral economic relationship with Poland,” Obama said. “Poland’s economy was the only economy in the EU not to fall into recession during the economic crisis and has enormous potential for economic growth.”
Poland’s resources are attracting attention from Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM), Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips, the three biggest U.S. oil companies, which are among those granted 86 licenses to explore for shale gas. It could cost as much as 50 million zloty ($18 million) for each of the 124 exploratory wells needed to search for Poland’s reserves, Deputy Treasury Minister Mikolaj Budzanowski said earlier this month, putting the total investment needed at as much as 6.2 billion zloty.
Standing next to his Polish counterpart, Obama said he supports legislation in Congress that would make it easier for Poles to travel to the states. Poland doesn’t meet the criteria under an existing law, passed after the Sept. 11 attacks, that would allow its citizens to enter the U.S. without a visa.
