Aleksander Kwaśniewski made the appeal at a conference to mark 25 years since Poland began negotiations to enter NATO, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
Held in Warsaw, the event was titled "The Security of NATO's eastern flank - the role of Poland."
Poland’s president between 1995 and 2005 told the audience that “Membership of NATO is one of Poland’s biggest successes of the past 30 years.”
Kwaśniewski added that the Western alliance’s importance has grown following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
“February 24 showed that NATO is becoming not just a theoretical, but a practical agent of deterrence,” he stated.
“And so today we must treat NATO as an even more important pillar of our security than in the past,” the ex-president added.
‘NATO unity must be cultivated’
Kwaśniewski stressed: “NATO unity must be cultivated and things that divide us in the Pact must be avoided, because they serve Russia’s interests.”
According to the former head of state, “NATO has always been needed, but now it is needed even more. In the past, it has shown the power of deterrence, while today it must show the power of winning.”
He called on NATO “not to change its stance on the war in Ukraine” and “to provide even more weapons to Ukraine,” as Kyiv “has a chance to succeed in the war against Russia.”
Kwaśniewski stated that the conflict in Ukraine “isn’t only a war for Ukraine’s freedom, it’s a war for the freedom of the Western world.”
“It’s a war between democracy and autocracy,” the ex-president concluded.
Tuesday’s conference was organised by Kwaśniewski’s foundation Amicus Europae and the Bronisław Komorowski Institute, an organisation set up by another Polish ex-president (serving between 2010 and 2015), Bronisław Komorowski.
Guests included the leaders of Poland’s opposition parties, the PAP news agency reported.
Tuesday is day 209 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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Source: PAP, wpolityce.pl