Ambassador
Victor Ashe

Greetings from Warsaw!

Warsaw’s winter is holding on as best it can, we’re already seeing early buds on the trees of Lazieki Park and flowers along Nowy Swiat, and are looking forward to another beautiful and productive Polish spring.

In two weeks on April 15, Warsaw will honor the 65th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. President Bush will send a Presidential delegation headed by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, and including U.S. Ambassador to Poland Victor Ashe as well as Phyllis Heideman, Managing Partner of Heideman Nudelman & Kalik, David Mitzner, Founder and President of RIDA Development Corporation, and Bill Lowenberg, President of Lowenberg Corporation to participate in the ceremonies commemorating this important event in Polish history.

March was a significant month for two important bilateral issues. First, on March 10, Prime Minister Tusk and President Bush met at the White House. It was Mr. Tusk’s first visit to the United States as Prime Minister, and a key meeting in our continuing discussions about placing 10 anti-terrorist ballistic missile interceptors in Poland. Second, on March 27, the new Non-Immigrant Visa Section at the Embassy was opened. This project improves our ability to provide the very highest in customer service to Polish visa applicants and others traveling to the United States.

Also in March, I presented the second annual Jan Nowak-Jeziorański Award for Public Service to former Finance Minister and President of the National Bank of Poland Leszek Balcerowicz, who is considered the father of Poland's economic transformation after communism. His program of economic shock therapy involving the first comprehensive implementation of market reforms in satellite countries of the former Soviet Union and was a key step toward developing a market economy. The flourishing Polish economy of today owes much of its success to the steps implemented by Professor Balcerowicz.

We welcomed a number of high level visitors during the past month, including a Congressional delegation led by Representative Rick Boucher (D-VA), and including Representatives Fred Upton (R-MI), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Albert Wynn (D-MD), Nick Rahall (D-WV), and Dan Lungren (R-CA), as well as Bud Albright, Under Secretary of Energy of the Department of Energy. The delegation was in Poland for meetings with the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Economy and the Minister of Environment, with whom they discussed clean coal technology and climate change.

Former Ambassador to Poland and current Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Chris Hill spoke at the launching ceremony of the East Asian Center of the Warsaw School of Economics on Friday, March 14. He also took time the following day to address Embassy personnel on current foreign policy issues.

Norbert Obrycki, Marszalek of Zachodniopomorskie (Szczecin) Province, visited the Embassy on Wednesday, March 26. He is one of the youngest provincial officials in Poland.

On March 10, anticipating next year’s 50th anniversary of the Fulbright Program in Poland, the United States and Poland signed a new Fulbright Agreement which will greatly expand the exchange of students, teachers and scholars between the two countries. This is the first time in the program’s history that the Polish government has pledged full partnership and parity, which will directly affect the future success of this important exchange Program. We continue to have a very successful exchange programs with Poland. For example, we recently welcomed a group of 33 agricultural leaders from the Illinois Agricultural Leadership Forum to Poland who visited to gain exposure to international farm issues, learn more about the Poland’s agricultural sector and expand their network of contacts for future business opportunities.

I also recently awarded the two high school student winners of this year’s annual Know America contest an exchange opportunity at the Benjamin Franklin Fellows Initiative, an international summer camp for youth. The Know America contest is a nationwide competition for high school students from all over Poland that tests knowledge about the United States, and has become one the year’s true highlights, celebrating the thinkers and leaders of the future.

The Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe held a hearing in Washington on H. R. 3320, an Act that would provide $5 million in development assistance to the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw. This is a very important step toward realizing the museum’s goals of educating future generations on a very significant period of Poland’s past.

In mid-April, Pam Quanrud will become Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy. Ms. Quanrud is coming to the Embassy from her recent post as Economic Counselor in Moscow. I look forward to working with her and want to express my deep appreciation for the outstanding work of Mary Curtin, who served as DCM in an interim capacity.

I appreciated all of your thoughtful comments and suggestions on the March newsletter, and hope to continue to receive your feedback. I will always respond to you if you send me a message at  AsheVH@state.gov.  I personally read and respond to all messages.

Sincerely Yours,

Victor Ashe

Embassy News