The following is a Joint Statement by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski following their bilateral meeting in Krakow, Poland on July 3, 2010.
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Through our active participation in the Community of Democracies High-Level Event, the Governments of the United States and Poland recommit to strengthening civil society and promoting good governance and democracy around the globe. It is appropriate that we have returned to Poland to renew our pledge to the Community of Democracies’ principles. It is here where former Polish Foreign Minister Bronislaw Geremek and United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright championed the adoption of the 2000 Warsaw Declaration launching this organization. U.S. and Polish leadership on democracy promotion is a pillar of our relationship; a natural pairing of two countries that have made great sacrifices for their own freedom and that of others. We recognize that the world is a safer, more stable and more prosperous place when our international partners respect the will of their own people.
In the spirit of that goal, we are pleased the United States intends, subject to Congressional authorization and appropriation, to contribute $15 million to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation over a period of five years in order to safeguard that camp and educate future generations so that its atrocities may never be repeated.
Today our governments signed a Protocol amending the 2008 Ballistic Missile Defense Agreement. This agreement marks an important step in our countries’ efforts to protect our NATO allies from the threat posed by the proliferation of ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction. This is the first agreement that implements the U.S. European-based Phased Adaptive Approach (EPAA) for ballistic missile defense and enables the stationing of a U.S. land-based SM-3 missile defense interceptor system in the Republic of Poland.
Following our agreement last April for high-level discussions on energy security, today we agreed that the Republic of Poland would join with the United States in the Global Shale Gas Initiative (GSGI). Through the GSGI, Poland and the United States will expand our cooperation to promote environmentally-sound shale gas development in the context of a global forum of selected countries worldwide. We look forward to continuing high-level cooperation on energy, including through a high-level Civil Nuclear Policy Mission to Warsaw later this month.
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