Andrzej Duda in a meeting with the diplomatic corps. He talked about Ukraine, military spending, NATO and the food crisis

President at the Presidential Palace on Thursday Andrzej Duda and the First Lady Agatha Kornhauser-Tuda He met the accredited consular officers in Poland. The President recalled that this was the first meeting of such a committee after a gap of two years. – I am glad that we returned to the practice of face-to-face meetings, because I am worried about this kind of communication with you, talking with you – he said.

– Today I want to thank you for all your actions in this difficult time for all of us, during the war in Ukraine as a result of the occupation of Russia, during the epidemics – he added.

– Few of you, before starting your work, here in Poland, may expect that you are going to a country that is at the center of world events in the first months of the last year, and suddenly cities, which were previously considered far away. Przemyśl or Rzeszów will become the place of arrival and departure of the most important people from your countries – announced the President.

As Duda continued, “You and I have become participants in a history that has determined the shape of Europe, the West, and the entire world for decades, and who knows, maybe even longer.”

He also emphasized that “Poland made a strategic decision last winter – in the face of Russia’s threats to neighboring Ukraine, we decided not to be neutral to aggressive actions.” – Two reasons guided me and my colleagues. First, we believed that Ukraine could successfully confront Russia as long as it received arms and financial support from the free world West. Second, we firmly believed that if Russia’s demands were met with concessions by the international community, Moscow would terrorize the entire region of our continent, he continued.

As Duda continued, “Russia’s barbaric aggression forced the world to redefine its current geopolitical arrangements and international security situation.” “Russia’s renewed attack on independent Ukraine is a factor that will dramatically change the security situation in Europe and our allies,” the president assessed during a meeting with the diplomatic corps.

According to him, the stakes of this war are huge for all of us, “and the geographical location is irrelevant here, because now almost the whole world has to deal with the consequences of energy and food crises caused by Moscow.” “Let’s face it, the goal of the Kremlin regime is not to solve, but to exacerbate these crises, to make them more acute for the world,” he said.

Referring to expert estimates, he said that 70 million people in the world are at risk of starvation. – 70 million more than the inhabitants of France, which is twice the total population of Poland. We should not turn a blind eye to these facts, he opined.

The president stressed that all these people are at risk of starvation due to Russian aggression and food intimidation. – That’s them Vladimir Putin He was taken hostage. Such acts cannot be allowed to go unpunished and not subject to the reaction of the international community, because the lives of millions of people are at risk, often affected by very difficult or dramatic situations – he emphasized.

The President also noted that “Poland does not shirk its responsibility to develop solutions to the challenges mentioned here.” “Therefore we support the agreement negotiated under the auspices of the UN Secretary General and are ready to participate in the transit of Ukrainian grain,” he said. At the same time, he added, “However, in the long term, we need to redefine our defense policy.” – The time of the end of history has unfortunately passed – Andrzej Duda added.

During his speech, the Polish leader also mentioned the country’s national security challenges. – Investments in the military are investments in the security and stability of not only ours, Poland, but Europe as a whole, and given the size of NATO, one might say, the world as well – he assessed.

In his opinion, “Despite the decisions taken at the summit in Wales in 2014, it is also important for those countries not to spend at least 2 percent of GDP on defence.” – Today, with NATO and the EU facing a full-scale war on its eastern border, this short-sighted policy must quickly change in favor of a more united and loyal approach to the most threatened allies. – he appealed.

He added that such savings are being made at the expense of “Lithuanians, Poles, Latvians, Estonians and Romanians”. We cannot accept this as allies. Partners don’t do that. I say this on behalf of the government that supplied weapons to Ukraine so that Ukrainians would have enough to defend their land and homes, not from stockpiles of obsolete equipment. emphasized.

The President noted that it is important to maintain friendly cooperation with partners such as the United States, Great Britain, the Bucharest Nine and the Baltic States. – New major partners are also on the horizon, such as the Republic of Korea, which has recently become our major partner in the military sector, and possibly in the energy sector as well. There is no doubt that NATO is the main guarantor of stability and security in the Atlantic region.

The President also expressed hope that further decisions will be taken at the next NATO summit in Vilnius to strengthen transatlantic ties and strengthen the eastern part of the North Atlantic Alliance. – If NATO is threatened by invasion, it is undoubtedly threatened from the East. In this context, any talk of Europe’s strategic autonomy, if actually understood as a partial weakening of cooperation with the United States, should be considered not only a pipe dream, but dangerous ideas for much of the continent, he said.

Duda also addressed the issue of difficulties in global international relations. In this context, he mentioned justice as the basis for peace – “including ending the Russian aggression against Ukraine.” “An unjust peace ends with another war, and we all want one that is affecting Ukraine so badly to be the last in our lives, our children, grandchildren and God bless the next generation,” he said. .

According to him, “a reasonable peace would restore the territorial integrity of Ukraine, force Russia to stop occupying parts of Georgia and Moldova, withdraw troops from Belarus and stop maintaining a puppet regime, stop fomenting conflicts in the Balkans, terrorize its border states, finance mercenaries in African countries and the world. “A just peace,” he continued, “recognizes the right of every nation to determine its own future.”

The president announced that Poland supports Ukraine in NATO and Ukraine, Moldova, Albania, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia in the EU. Bosnia and Herzegovina. – I am also convinced that the Three Seas Initiative, the Bucharest Nine, the Polish-Ukrainian fraternal movement are strongly supported by the Baltic States, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and the Central European Union. War in Ukraine Create a new identity for our region. Andrzej Duda continued that we are becoming a family of nations and nations formed by common history, geography, kinship and linguistic and personal ties based on common destiny. He also expressed his hope that all countries in the region would be involved in post-war reconstruction of Ukraine. – As a regional, tri-sea initiative, I urge Ukraine and Moldova to join the European transport, energy and digital data exchange systems as soon as possible, as well as to work on urgently integrating these countries. With the European Community – the President emphasized. Before the war in Ukraine, he said, there were plans for “Poland to pursue a more global agenda.” – I wanted a new opening with Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Indo-Pacific. I have also planned visits to the Middle East with the support of the business component, he said. “Of course, the war has put many of these projects on hold, but I’m not going to abandon them.” I believe these are the tasks for the rest of my presidency. He declared that Poland is a great European country and its agenda must be global.