Warsaw, Sept 19: US Army Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, arrived today in Warsaw for a day of talks with Polish defence officials on Iraq, the war on terrorism and Nato. Myers was holding morning talks with Gen. Czeslaw Piatas, Chief of the General Staff and was to meet later with Defence Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski and Marek Siwiec, top security aide to President Aleksander Kwasniewski.
Col. Zdzislaw Gnatowski, spokesman for Poland's general staff, said the visit is to serve for an exchange of opinions on "common issues like Nato and anti-terrorist actions including Iraq". Poland has been one of the United States' staunchest supporters recently, contributing some 200 troops to the war in Iraq and now commanding a 21-nation force of 9,500 running a security zone in the country.
Warsaw has contributed 2,400 troops to the force in Iraq, with large contingents coming from Ukraine and Spain. Most of other countries have much smaller contingents, down to 27 soldiers from Kazakhstan and 45 Lithuanians. A former Warsaw pact nation, Poland joined Nato in 1999, along with Hungary and the Czech Republic and has been since upgrading the Army to alliance standards.
Myers' visit is part of a European tour that took him to Kosovo and Hungary earlier in the week. Bureau Report