On 15-17 of April 2024, the Casimir Pulaski Foundation and the Warsaw Security Forum have dispatched an advocacy mission to Washington D.C. to bolster support for the passage of the critical U.S. $60 billion aid package to Ukraine. The senior leadership of the Casimir Pulaski Foundation was joined by three members of national parliaments from Germany, France and Poland.

A first-ever delegation of Weimar Triangle parliamentarians headed by the Warsaw Security Forum Chair – Prof. Katarzyna Pisarska – paid a three-day visit to Washington D.C. in order to bolster support for the passage of the critical $60 billion U.S. aid bill for Ukraine.

The following prominent lawmakers from Poland, France, and Germany joined the Casimir Pulaski Foundation representatives:

• Paweł Kowal, Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Sejm of the Republic of Poland
• Natalia Pouzyreff, Member of the National Assembly, Committee of the Defense and Armed Forces, France
• Norbert Röttgen, Member of Bundestag, Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee (2014-2021), Germany

The delegation stressed that despite the fact, that already today, Europe is providing 50% of military aid and 70% of all financial aid to Ukraine, U.S. contribution – especially of the $60 billion military aid package – is critical at this moment in time.

The program of the visit was rich in individual meetings with U.S. Congressmen both from Republican and Democratic parties such as:

• Sen. Marco Rubio  – Member of the U.S. Senate from Florida
• Rep. Mike Turner – Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio, Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
• Rep. Nathaniel Moran – Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas
• Rep. John Garamedi – Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California
• Rep. Jason Crow – Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Colorado

The key element of the advocacy efforts on the Hill was the congressional briefing with the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe, where Prof. Pisarska and the lawmakers had an opportunity to speak in front of the Committee leadership:

• Rep. Tom Kean, Jr.  – Chair of the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Europe
• Rep. William Keating – Ranking Member, U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Europe
• Rep. Jim Costa – Ranking Member, U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Europe

A dozen congressional staff members were also briefed on the issues important for European security, especially in the face of the growing Russian threat and the need for tighten policy coordination among Western allies.

The D.C. visit also included important engagements with top U.S. executives from the Department of Defence and the National Security Council:

• Dr. Phil Gordon – National Security Advisor to Vice-President Kamala Harris, National Security Council
• Lisa Sawyer – Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Europe and NATO, Department of Defense
• Ambassador Michael R. Carpenter – Senior Director, European Affairs, National Security Council

In cooperation with leading Washington-based think-thanks  – such as the Woodrow Wilson Center, Atlantic Council and The Heritage Foundation – the Casimir Pulaski Foundation held expert meetings to bring the European perspective closer to D.C.’s wider audience.

The advocacy visit to Washington was hailed as successful and extremely timely as the same week the speaker Mike Johnson decided to put the long-awaited Ukrainian aid bill on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. He explained his decision in the following way:

“I think providing lethal aid to Ukraine right now is critically important. I really do. I really do believe the intel and the briefings that we’ve gotten. I believe Xi, Vladimir Putin and Iran really are an axis of evil. I think they’re in coordination on it”

“So I think that Vladimir Putin would continue to march through Europe if he were allowed. I think he might go to the Balkans next. I think he might have a showdown with Poland or one of our NATO allies.”

The visit to Washington D.C. in a Weimar Triangle format is a follow-up to the March 2024 meeting of three leaders – Emmanuel Macron, Donald Tusk, and Olaf Scholz – who pledged to boost support for Ukraine by Europe and their respective states. The format is known for being an ‘engine’ of European cooperation driving the development of important processes in the field of foreign policy and security.