Poland doubted US sincerity: WikiLeaks

WARSAW: A little over a month before US President Barack Obama's first visit to Poland, new Wikileaks cables confirm that a few months into Obama's presidency, top Polish politicians were worried about the status of Polish-US relations.

"There is a growing fear among Polish government elites that Poland has become an afterthought, or even a nuisance, in Washington circles," then-Ambassador Victor Ashe wrote in this cable dated March 2009.

Previously leaked cables from the American embassy in Warsaw revealed Polish anger at having received non-operational Patriot missiles from the US and fear over an American-Russian rapprochement at Poland's expense.

This latest wire portrays Polish leaders as having gotten over initial doubts about US openings to Russia under the leadership of President Obama. Nevertheless, they were "beginning to doubt [American] sincerity" due to a lack of access to US leaders.

Polish Foreign Affairs officials are reported as saying that Polish PM Donald Tusk would lose credibility if he did not meet Obama in Washington by April 2009. A meeting between the two in Washington never took place, but Tusk, the then-president Lech Kaczynski and Obama did meet in Prague in April 2009, on the margins of an US-EU Summit.

The first cables from the American embassy in Warsaw came shortly before Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski's visit to Washington in December, but did not seem to negatively affect the visit, which was generally perceived as a success.

Obama is scheduled to visit Poland on May 27.