During the Congress, Deputy Prime Minister Sikorski emphasised that Poland’s ongoing presidency of the Council of the Baltic Sea States, which began on 1 July 2025, has changed the perception of security in the Baltic Sea. EU states recognised that the Baltic’s economic and strategic significance calls for its enhanced security. The head of Polish diplomacy opined that the basin requires protection from the clunker fleet of the often unseaworthy, uninsured, and stateless tankers carrying Russian oil through its waters.

I don’t understand why we ban dubious aircraft from our airports and demand that cars be insured and certified roadworthy but refrain from putting such restrictions on the clunker fleet

- said Deputy Prime Minister Sikorski, adding that the fleet’s vessels had already damaged eleven undersea installations. EU states have responded to that challenge. More and more ships are successively covered by EU sanctions. Currently the list includes 632 such vessels.

The world’s attention is focused on the Strait of Hormuz. But these are by no means the only waters falling victim to intensifying international rivalry; the same thing is happening in the Red Sea and the Black Sea. And this rivalry and these threats are also present here, in the Baltic Sea

the foreign minister said.

Poland’s security is being improved through armaments programmes, which include the Orka (new-generation submarines), the Miecznik (multipurpose frigates for the Polish Navy), and investments in the development of Polish unmanned surface vehicles. It is equally important to have a situational monitoring and early warning platform. Work to that end has been underway in the Ośrodek Badawczo-Rozwojowy Centrum Techniki Morskiej S.A., a R&D facility in Gdynia.

Deputy Prime Minister Sikorski also highlighted the Baltic’s economic importance. A third of Poland’s exports outside the EU are shipped from our seaports, which handled nearly one-third (32.3%) of all container turnover in the Baltic Sea in 2025.  
Minister Sikorski said that the Baltic is Poland’s key energy security corridor. The Polish “Baltic energy hub” consists of LNG and LPG terminals, the Naftoport oil terminal, as well as offshore platforms and gas pipelines. Since 2026, the hub will also include wind farms currently under construction in Poland’s exclusive economic zone. They will provide 13% of Poland’s electrical power supply by 2030, and 19% in 2040. 

Poland is also prepared to serve as a US-imported LNG redistribution hub in order to enhance the security of supplies and bolster Central Europe’s independence from Russian energy materials.