John Kerry to visit Poland

US secretary of state John Kerry will visit Poland on 5 November, the only European capital on a nine-day trip, which includes seven capitals of northern Africa and the Middle East.



Poland's foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski said on Thursday afternoon that Kerry's visit "will be an opportunity for serious talks on a range of European security issues and international developments".

The Foreign Ministry says the talks will embrace the future direction of Polish - US cooperation on trade and possibilities of joint projects in the sphere of security, in the context of next year’s NATO summit.

Radoslaw Sikorski is also expected to raise with Kerry the issue of the NSA spying revelations, as disclosed by whistle-blower Edward Snowden.

John Kerry appeared to admit on Thursday that the US surveillance programme had been out of control and gone too far in recent years.

"The president and I have learned of some things that have been happening in many ways on an automatic pilot, because the technology is there and the ability is there," he told a conference in London via video link.

"In some cases, some of these actions have reached too far and we are going to try to make sure it doesn't happen in the future."

During his stay in Poland, John Kerry will visit the 32nd Tactical Air Force Base in Lask to meet Polish and American personnel stationed there.

He will also lay flowers on the grave of Poland's former prime minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki, who died last Monday and whose funeral is on Sunday in Warsaw.

(ss/pg)