Mateusz Morawiecki made the remark at the annual congress of local-government officials from the Three Seas region, which is taking place on Monday and Tuesday in the eastern Polish city of Lublin.
'There is no Three Seas Initiative without a free and sovereign Ukraine'
The Polish PM said that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, “its brutality and Russian cruelty, have shown us how important cooperation between the countries of NATO's eastern flank and the European Union is.”
He added: “At the same time, it made us realise that there is no Three Seas Initiative without a free and sovereign Ukraine.”
'The Three Seas concept will be a great success'
“I think that the Three Seas concept will be a great success, especially when Central and Eastern Europe become ‘Central Europe’ for the economic development of the EU,” Morawiecki also told the audience.
During a recent visit to Kyiv, Poland’s President Andrzej Duda said he would like Ukraine to join the Three Seas Initiative.
Ukraine’s ambassador to Poland, Andrii Deshchytsia, said last week that his country was “very much interested” in joining Poland in this regional drive.
The Three Seas Initiative brings together European Union countries situated between the Black, Baltic and Adriatic Seas: Poland, Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary.
It seeks to deepen political, economic, energy and infrastructure ties between its members.
Featuring some 900 participants, the Lublin Congress prepares the ground for the Three Seas Summit to be held in Riga, Latvia, later this month.
Monday is day 103 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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Source: IAR, PAP