The talks focused on Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. The ministers jointly and strongly condemned Russia’s criminal, illegal, and unprovoked invasion carried out with support of the Belarusian regime against Ukraine, which is Poland and Slovakia’s common neighbour. They also made a point that resuming cooperation with Russia as it was before the latter attacked Ukraine is no longer an option. The topical aspects of cooperation for the benefit of the Ukrainian government and society were discussed as well, including ways to provide humanitarian aid for Ukraine and support for Ukrainian refugees.

Minister Rau presented progress made to date in preparing the Humanitarian Aid Donors’ Conference for Ukraine to be held in Warsaw in May. He also outlined his latest activities as OSCE Chairman-in-Office, including the recent visit to the South Caucasus. Another major topic of the talks concerned Ukraine’s European aspirations, advocated strongly by the governments of Poland and Slovakia.

Also discussed was the strengthening of NATO’s eastern flank and the potential developments in corresponding cooperation between the two countries. The main areas of bilateral cooperation were debated, including the key issue of the Polish-Slovak gas interconnector to be put into operation in 2022 and other important aspects of ongoing economic cooperation.

The vital facets of regional cooperation were another subject of the talks, centred also around the forthcoming Slovak presidency of the V4 and the Three Seas Initiative.

 

Łukasz Jasina
MFA Press Spokesperson

 

Photo: Krystian Maj/KPRM