Magierowski had already secured the so-called agrément from the US Department of State, which meant only domestic lawmakers’ approval was needed for him to assume the role in Washington, according to officials.
Presenting the candidate before the committee, Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydacz said Magierowski had two decades of experience as a journalist covering international politics and has also served as press secretary to President Andrzej Duda, deputy foreign minister and ambassador to Israel.
This pedigree gives Magierowski very good policy credentials and diplomatic experience, Przydacz argued, as quoted by the Polish state news agency.
Magierowski himself told the parliamentary committee that the United States remained Poland’s most important ally, "virtually in every respect," and so good relations must be maintained, regardless of who occupies the White House at any given moment.
Spelling out the challenges, the ambassadorial candidate listed America’s “actual agreement” to the completion of the controversial gas pipeline between Russia and Germany, Nord Stream 2, the PAP news agency reported.
“We must persuade Washington that it’s not fanciful to imagine that Russia can use the pipeline for blackmail,” he told the lawmakers.
Magierowski also said he would attach great importance to the “highly complex” relations with the Jewish diaspora in the United States, on issues such the history of the Holocaust and restitution of Jewish property confiscated as a result of World War II, in light of Poland’s new regulations in this area.
Opposition MPs said the new envoy would face the tough task of improving the country's bilateral relations with America under President Joe Biden’s administration.
Poland’s dispute with Israel over legislation that introduces a statute of limitations on claims for the restitution of property is also having an adverse impact on Warsaw's ties with Washington, opposition MPs said.
Magierowski has been Poland’s ambassador to Israel since June 2018, but he left the country this summer and has remained in Poland in the wake of a bilateral row over the disputed Polish law, which Tel Aviv says could make it more difficult for Israeli survivors to reclaim property confiscated by Nazi Germans during World War II.
Amid the dispute, the Israeli foreign ministry last month recommended that Magierowski, who was on vacation in his home country at the time, did not return to Israel but remain in Poland.
In Washington, Magierowski is set to replace Piotr Wilczek, who has been Poland’s ambassador to the United States since November 2016.
Last week, the Polish foreign ministry said that, subject to getting the go-ahead from lawmakers, it was hoping to install the new envoy before the end of the year.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP