The official part of the meeting was opened by Minister Adam Rapacki, who welcomed the guests and thanked them for cooperation to date. The Minister also expressed his hope that further Polish-American cooperation will take place on all levels of services responsible for combating terrorism. He also stressed that the Polish side wishes to intensify cooperation in all areas related to terrorism by preparing detailed schedules of working groups and by setting priorities.
Pamela Quanrud, the Deputy Chief of Mission of the American Embassy in Warsaw, stated that Poland is one of the world’s leaders in counterterrorism and that she was impressed by the Counterterrorism Centre and by Polish operations in this field. She stressed that an important thing in combating terrorism is to share experiences between counterterrorism services in different countries.
After the initial speeches, the Security Department of the Ministry of Interior and Administration (MSWiA) presented the institutions committed to preventing terrorist threats, and in particular the coordinative role of the Minister of Interior and Administration as the Chairman Interministerial Anti-Terrorist Group and the Government Security Centre.
The American side proposed a new project of cooperation with Illinois National Guard.
The debate also concerned the Polish-American cooperation to date in the field of crisis infrastructure, migration and foreign affairs, and financing of terrorism. Another subject of the debate was the cooperation between special forces, military cooperation, and protection of persons and facilities.
Both sides of the meeting presented proposals of trainings in the abovementioned fields in the next years, including trainings with state and federal units. The American side declared that American forces would participate in manoeuvres in crisis management, in the context of the EURO 2012 championships, which will be organized in Poland.
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