The chief of Polish diplomacy took part in the Carpathians Interregional Group meeting at the invitation of Marshal of the Podkarpackie Province Władysław Ortyl.

Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau and his Czech counterpart Tomáš Petříček attended a Polish-Czech discussion forum titled “Czech Republic and Poland in the EU – Opportunities and Challenges”.

“Poland enjoys excellent relations with the Mediterranean partners. As a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, we strongly advocated engagement with the region, which is also a priority area of Polish humanitarian aid and development cooperation, including in Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, and North African countries,” said Minister Zbigniew Rau during his speech at the 5th Regional Forum of the Union for the Mediterranean, held on Friday, which coincided with celebrations of the 25th anniversary of the Barcelona Process.

“The discussion on the principles of Poland’s Eastern policy is best described by the rules of the Union of Lublin: free with the free, equal with the equal,” underlined Minister Zbigniew Rau as he opened the conference organised by the Jan Nowak-Jeziorański College of Eastern Europe in Wrocław.

A review of the EU’s relations with South Mediterranean countries dominated the EU-Southern Neighbourhood ministerial, which was held on Thursday at the initiative of Spain and the European Commission.

“I am pleased that our countries enjoy increasingly close relations which we have also been developing as allies within NATO since March 2020,” said Minister Zbigniew Rau during a phone conversation with the head of diplomacy of North Macedonia Bujar Osmani.

- Thanks to effective cooperation between national institutions, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of National Defense, Solidarity Fund PL as well as Treasury-owned companies and foundations, and despite the ongoing challenges related to the pandemic-driven crisis, we can still provide assistance to those most in need outside our borders. - stressed the minister speaking about humanitarian aid which was dispatched to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan earlier today.

“Any one of us can become an e-volunteer and help others by joining the #WspierajSeniora [Support senior citizen] initiative,” said Deputy Minister Szymon Szynkowski vel Sęk. Referring to the “Polonia for Neighbours” campaign, he called on Polish communities across the world to join the Polish government’s initiative “Cyfrowy Wolontariusz” (“Digital e-volunteer”) under the “Solidarity Senior Support Corps” programme.

On 18 November 2020, Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Zbigniew Rau held consultations with his Dutch counterpart Stephanus Blok.

Political and economic relations as well as the two countries’ bilateral cooperation in international fora, including in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, were at the top of Thursday’s agenda during a videoconference between Deputy Minister Marcin Przydacz and his Vietnamese counterpart To Anh Dung.