Spectre of armed conflict returns to haunt region: Polish president

Polish President Andrzej Duda on Wednesday addressed the Lithuanian National Security Conference in the capital Vilnius, and said that the spectre of armed conflict had returned to the region in the wake of Russian aggression in eastern Ukraine in 2014.

Speaking at a security conference in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, Duda said such a prospect had re-emerged in this part of Europe for the first time in decades….

“And so it is a relatively new situation, which calls for a novel approach to security in our region,” the Polish president added during a two-day visit to the Baltic neighbour.

Duda argued that conventional threats required a further strengthening of NATO, while hybrid threats were being addressed in the military alliance’s new strategy and the EU’s “Strategic Compass” document.

The Polish president told the conference that his country and Lithuania had to work closely together for NATO and the EU to be effective….