Poland’s Andrzej Duda and the Czech Republic’s Petr Pavel held talks at the presidential palace in Warsaw, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
The meeting marked the beginning of a two-day visit to Poland for the new Czech president, who was accompanied by First Lady Eva Pavlova.
At a joint news conference afterwards, Poland’s Duda said he and Pavel had discussed Polish-Czech ties, including political and economic cooperation, joint infrastructure projects and prospects for high-speed road and rail connections between the two countries, as well as regional cooperation as part of the Three Seas Initiative and the Bucharest Nine group of eastern-flank NATO countries.
The Polish president said the talks also focused on security issues, an upcoming NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, and "the situation in Ukraine.”
Poland, Czech Republic 'at forefront of support for Ukraine’
Duda told reporters that both Poland and the Czech Republic were “steadfast” in their policy of providing “not just humanitarian aid, but also military support” for Ukraine.
He stressed: “The Czech Republic and Poland are at the forefront of support for Ukraine.”
The Polish head of state said he and Pavel had also discussed energy security, including “the development of the gas network and interconnectors,” as well as cooperation between Polish energy giant PKN Orlen and its Czech subsidiary Unipetrol.
“This concerns the extension of the Transalpine pipeline to supply oil to refineries in the Czech Republic,” Duda specified.
He thanked Pavel "for the very good conditions” enjoyed by the Polish community in the Czech Republic, including in “education and cultural development.”
The Polish president declared: “It is my hope that in the coming years, for the remainder of my presidential term, we’ll be working closely together, building Polish-Czech relations in the best possible way, including through cooperation in NATO, the European Union, the Three Seas Initiative, the Bucharest Nine and all the formats in which we participate together.”
‘A high level of cooperation’
Meanwhile, Pavel hailed “a high level of cooperation” between the two countries, with close ties “not just between the presidents and governments, but also regional authorities and citizens.”
The Czech head of state said: “It seems that never in all history have our relations been on such a magnificent level as now.”
Pavel added that he and Duda also discussed road and energy infrastructure and ways to "take the two countries' potential to the next level.”
Support for Ukraine
The two presidents were asked by reporters about their countries’ further support for Ukraine to help Kyiv repel Russia's invasion.
Pavel said that the countries in the region “should work together on a plan to rebuild Ukraine” after the war.
He added that the effort to rebuild the war-ravaged country would represent “an enormous opportunity for all the economies that will participate in this process” and the countries involved should strike an agreement “to avoid competing with each other.”
Duda echoed this sentiment, stressing that Poland and the Czech Republic "should work together to rebuild Ukraine in more ways than one.”
He added: “We must help rebuild Ukraine from the ravages of war, but we must also help build Ukraine as a modern country, in terms of infrastructure, and we must help rebuild it as a country that, as we deeply believe, will be a member of the EU and NATO in the future.”
The Polish president told reporters that both Poland and the Czech Republic would “support and advocate for Ukraine” on its path to European and Euro-Atlantic integration.
‘Together with President Pavel we have no doubt that Ukraine’s membership of the EU is in our shared interest,” he stated.
Thursday was day 386 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, prezydent.pl