Radosław Sikorski (politician)

Radosław Tomasz "Radek" Sikorski (; born 23 February 1963) is a Polish politician, journalist and statesman who has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland in Donald Tusk's cabinet since 2023, previously holding the office between 2007 and 2014. He was a Member of the European Parliament between 2019 and 2023. Earlier he was Marshal of the Sejm from 2014 to 2015. He previously served as Deputy Minister of National Defence (1992) in Jan Olszewski's cabinet, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs (1998–2001) in Jerzy Buzek's cabinet and Minister of National Defence (2005–2007) in the cabinets of Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz and Jarosław Kaczyński.

A graduate member of Pembroke College, Oxford, between 1986 and 1989 he worked as a journalist for '' The Observer'' and '' The Spectator'' and in 1986 was a war correspondent in Afghanistan. In 1989, he reported on the conflict in Angola. Between 2003 and 2005, he was a member of the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute. In 2012, he was included on the list of ''Top 100 Global Thinkers 2012'' published by ''Foreign Policy'' magazine. In 2015, he became a Senior Fellow at the Center for European Studies of Harvard University. He is a Senior Network Member at the European Leadership Network (ELN). He is a member of the Civic Platform, in which he is seen as being part of the party's Right-wing.

Early life and education

Sikorski was born in Bydgoszcz. He chaired the local student strike committee in March 1981 while studying at the I Liceum Ogólnokształcące (High School). In June 1981 he travelled to the United Kingdom to study English. After martial law was declared in December 1981, he was granted political asylum in Britain in 1982. He studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Pembroke College, University of Oxford.

During his time at Oxford, Sikorski was head of the Standing Committee of the debating society, the Oxford Union (where he organised debates on martial law), president of the Oxford University Polish Society, member of the Canning Club, and was elected to the Bullingdon Club, a dining society that counted among its members former British Prime Minister, David Cameron, former Chancellor George Osborne, and former Prime Minister Boris Johnson. His articles were published in prestigious Polish émigré magazines as well as Britain's ''Sunday Telegraph'' and '' Tatler'' magazines. He graduated in 1986. In 1987, Sikorski acquired British citizenship, which he renounced in 2006 upon being named Minister of Defence of Poland.

Career

Journalism (1985–1992)

In the mid-1980s, Sikorski worked as a freelance journalist for publications such as '' The Spectator'' and '' The Observer''. He also wrote for the Indian newspaper '' The Statesman of Kolkata''. In 1986, he travelled in Afghanistan, as he stated in his book, "to write about the war the mujahideen were waging against the Soviet Union". While a war correspondent for '' The Sunday Telegraph,'' he brought out the first report and photographs of the US Stinger missiles, whose use was a turning point in the war.

In 1987, he made a hundred-day journey, under Soviet bombardment, to the ancient city of Herat. He won the 1st prize singles in the category Spot News of World Press Photo Awards in 1988 for a photograph of a family killed and mummified in their home as a result of communist bombing raid.

His adventures were presented in the documentary "Polish Mujahideen: Radosław Sikorski", produced by Discovery Channel. Sikorski described his perilous journey to Herat in his first book ''Dust of the Saints: A Journey to Herat in Time of War''.

In 1989, he became the chief foreign correspondent for the U.S. conservative magazine '' National Review'', reporting from Afghanistan and Angola. He received praise for his article published in January 1989, "The coming crack-up of Communism", which proved prophetic. His article describing an ambush on the Benguela Highway conducted by Jonas Savimbi's UNITA rebels attracted widespread interest.

In 1990–91, he was the Warsaw correspondent for ''The Sunday Telegraph''. He was the author of the ''Interview of the Month'' program on the public Polish TV, in which he interviewed Margaret Thatcher, Lech Walesa, Vaclav Klaus, Otto von Habsburg, Henry Kissinger, Qian Qichen and others.

Deputy Minister in Olszewski and Buzek governments (1992–2002)

Sikorski returned to Poland in August 1989. He briefly served as deputy defence minister in the Jan Olszewski government in 1992, in which he helped launch the Polish bid to join NATO. From 1998 to 2001, Sikorski served as undersecretary of state at the ministry of foreign affairs in the Jerzy Buzek's government, being deputy first to Bronisław Geremek, and then to Władysław Bartoszewski. He oversaw the consular service and initiated reforms of services for Poles abroad. He signed agreements to abolish visas with countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, Singapore and Israel among them. He was Honorary Chairman of the Foundation for Assistance to Poles in the East.

During his time as a Deputy Foreign Minister, Sikorski focused on reforms inside the Ministry and started the campaign to protest the use of the misleading term "Polish concentration camps" in western media. He introduced the "cheap visa" program for Poland's Eastern neighbors and started the recovery of post-Soviet properties in Warsaw. He introduced competitions for posts of heads of Polish Institutes abroad. When Ted Turner made a demeaning joke about Poles in a Washington speech, Sikorski demanded an apology and Turner complied. Sikorski's appeal to Polish nationals with dual citizenship to use the passport of the country they were visiting caused some controversy among the Polish expatriate community, but has now become an established practice.

Policy analyst in the US (2002–2005)

From 2002 to 2005, Sikorski was a resident fellow of the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., and executive director of the New Atlantic Initiative. He was editor of the analytical publication ''European Outlook''. He organised international conferences, including the "Ronald Reagan – Legacy for Europe" in 2003, during which prominent politicians from Eastern Europe discussed the impact the U.S. president left on the world. Other major conferences included: "25th Anniversary of the birth of Solidarity", "Axis of Evil: Belarus – The Missing Link" and "Ukraine's Choice" at the time of the Orange Revolution.

Minister of National Defence (2005–2007)

In 2005, Sikorski returned to Poland and was elected senator from his home town of Bydgoszcz with 76,370 votes. He joined Prime Minister Marcinkiewicz's government as Minister of National Defence on 31 October. During his time in MoD, he moved Warsaw Pact-era files to the Institute of National Remembrance, declassified Warsaw Pact maps which demonstrated Soviet plans to use nuclear weapons in an offensive war against NATO and cancelled the military pension of Helena Wolińska-Brus, a Stalin-era prosecutor who sentenced the anti-communist Polish resistance general August Emil "Nil" Fieldorf to death. He introduced electronic auctions in procurement for defence equipment, saving the ministry a great amount of money. He announced the tender to buy a fleet of new jets for government transportation. He declassified a file of an operation codenamed "Szpak" (starling) by the Military Information Services (Wojskowe Służby Informacyjne, WSI) which documented their operations against him containing transcripts of the bugging of his home and telephone as well as hostile articles in the media inspired by WSI operatives.

He resigned on 5 February 2007, on the eve of Poland's engagement in the war in Afghanistan in protest against the activities of the chief of military intelligence, Antoni Macierewicz. Though never a member of the Law and Justice party, he served out the parliamentary term in the Law and Justice Senatorial Club. In the early parliamentary elections of 2007, he was elected to the Lower House (Sejm) with 117,291 votes, one of 10 best results in the country.

Minister of Foreign Affairs (2007–2014)

He was sworn in as Minister of Foreign Affairs in Donald Tusk's government on 16 November 2007, succeeding Anna Fotyga. He joined Donald Tusk's liberal-conservative Civic Platform party and became a member of the Civic Platform national board in 2008.

Sikorski's policies are best understood in his annual statement to the Sejm (Parliament). Each one was followed by a day-long debate. As Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sikorski normalized relations with Russia, and helped to terminate the Russian embargo on Polish agricultural products. In 2009, Sikorski said that Russia is needed to solve the problems of European and global theatre. Therefore, if Russia could fulfil the conditions, it could apply to join NATO. He restated NATO criteria that Russia would have to meet are: be a democratic state, have civilian control over the army, and to settle any territorial disputes with its neighbours. At the same time, he enhanced relations with Germany and France. Cooperation in the Weimar Triangle –Poland, Germany, France – was particularly intense during his term of office. Weimar Triangle meetings included consultations with third parties, such as Ukraine, Moldova and Russia.

As foreign minister, he turned the ministry into a global institution with 4500 employees and 100 foreign branches. Over seven years his ministry carried out various reforms, introducing the Diplomatic Security Service, global digital secure communications, ISO standards in procedures, electronic document management, a blackberry and laptop for every diplomat, a satellite phone for every posting, new visual standards book; The Foreign Service Day, a dress code, the Bene Merito honorary badge, The Polish Institute of Diplomacy, Poland's Lech Wałęsa Solidarity Prize (worth 1 mln EUR); reduced the number of chancelleries in the MFA HQ from over 30 to 2, reformed the telegram and courier systems, reduced employment while raising salaries; quadrupled ambassadors and consuls operational funds, closed down 30 embassies and consulates and opened several new ones; he opened a Polish consulate in Sevastopol, the only one representing a Western country in that city for 4 years; built a new EU embassy in Brussels, a new Embassy residence in Washington, DC, a new Consulate-General in London; he moved consulates in Cologne, Manchester and Madrid; he created the MFA committee on cyber defence; the European Endowment for Democracy (EED), authorized intelligence operations. During Sikorski's term in office he was a regular visitor in Moscow and his Russian counterpart Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov visited Warsaw regularly. Sikorski made his first visit in Moscow in 2008 with Donald Tusk. In 2009 he visited Moscow to enhance Polish-Russian cooperation. During one of Lavrov's visits, he engaged in Q&A session with Polish diplomats during MFA annual global ambassadors conference.

In 2008, Sikorski concluded a long negotiation with the U.S. over the siting of a missile defence base in Poland. He insisted on Polish jurisdiction over base personnel and asked the U.S. to enhance Poland's air defences as part of the deal. The agreement was finally signed with the U.S. Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, over the objections of Russia. The agreement came less than two weeks after the outbreak of the 2008 Russo-Georgian South Ossetian war. On 17 September 2009, the Obama administration changed the plans for the base. The annex to the agreement, which envisages shorter-range missiles capable of defending Poland's territory was signed in the presence of Sikorski and Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton on 3 June 2010 in Kraków.

In March 2010, Sikorski took part in the Civic Platform Presidential primaries against the then Sejm Speaker, Bronisław Komorowski, who went on to defeat the late Lech Kaczyński's brother Jarosław and becoming president. At that time, Sikorski enjoyed some of the highest approval and trust ratings among Polish politicians.

At the height of the European sovereign debt crisis in November 2011, Sikorski delivered a speech in Berlin: "Poland and the future of the European Union" in front of the German Council on Foreign Relations, the prestigious non-profit organization composed of the German foreign policy elite. He warned that EU member states faced a choice "between deeper economic integration or collapse of the Eurozone". Sikorski made an extraordinary appeal: "I will probably be the first Polish foreign minister in history to say so, but here it is: I fear German power less than I am beginning to fear German inactivity". Sikorski labelled Germany Europe's "indispensable nation" and appealed to Germany to lead in saving the euro, offering Poland's support. According to many political commentators and journalists, this speech made a tremendous impact on German and European politics, not least because it changed the perception of Poland: from a problematic and needy recipient of Western support to a full-fledged member of the European Union.

Sikorski was involved in the events of the winter 2014 Ukraine Euromaidan protests at the international level. He signed on 21 February along with Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich and opposition leaders Vitaly Klitchko