The meeting between Poland's Andrzej Duda, France's Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Olaf Scholz was held as part of what is known as the Weimar Triangle, a group the three countries set up in the early 1990s, news agencies reported.
The talks focused on security in Central and Eastern Europe and the threat of a new Russian invasion of Ukraine.
At a joint media briefing afterwards, the three politicians stressed that a further violation of Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty was unacceptable, Poland's PAP news agency reported.
Poland’s Duda said that the European Union and NATO "find themselves in the most difficult situation since 1989." He added that Russia was also amassing forces in Belarus for joint military exercises there.
Duda: ‘We must avoid war’
“We have to find a solution that will allow us to avoid war - this is our fundamental task,” the Polish president told reporters in the German capital. “I’m confident we will achieve this.”
“In my view, what matters most today is unity and solidarity,” Duda added.
“We must show that we are speaking in one voice,” he also said. “We must show that we are a community.”
The Polish president urged for “a wise, but firm and decisive stance,” public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
“I’m confident that together, we are able to develop just such a stance and the tools necessary to maintain it,” Duda stated.
“This was the purpose of today’s meeting, among other initiatives,” he added.
Meanwhile, Germany’s Scholz said: “Our assessment of the situation is identical ... any further violation of Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty is unacceptable and would have far-reaching consequences for Russia, in political, economic and probably also geostrategic terms.”
France’s Macron stressed the importance of the Weimar Triangle for resolving the situation, according to the PAP news agency.
He also said that coordinated action by the EU, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the G7 group, which are currently led by Paris, Warsaw and Berlin respectively, would produce “an even stronger message.”
Tensions around Ukraine
In recent days, planes carrying US troops and army equipment have landed in Poland as part of efforts to bolster NATO's eastern flank and reinforce allies in Eastern Europe amid a Russian military buildup near Ukraine.
Russia has amassed more than 100,000 troops around Ukraine in recent weeks, according to media reports, raising fears in the West that Moscow may be preparing for a new invasion of the country.
Moscow has denied plans for an assault but says it could take unspecified military action if its security demands are not met, the Reuters news agency has reported.
Russia annexed the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 and then fomented a separatist conflict in that country's eastern Donbas region, leading to a wave of EU and US sanctions against Moscow and Russian officials.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, IAR