Rau made the statement in a speech to an annual conference of Polish ambassadors, state news agency PAP reported.
Three principles of Polish foreign policy
He said that Polish foreign policy was based on three principles: “Opposition to every form of imperialism; legalism in the sense of respecting international law; and a democratic view of the nature of international relations.”
He added that this last principle could be summed up by "the old Polish motto: the free with the free, the equal with the equal, and nothing about us without us.”
Support for Ukraine
Rau told the conference that Poland had made “special efforts to prevent the restart of the Russo-Ukrainian war.”
He added that when Russia invaded Ukraine “Poland provided Ukrainians with unprecedented assistance.”
‘Era of empires has passed’
The Polish foreign minister said: “The era of empires has passed because imperial ideas contradict the idea of the freedom of the individual, the principle of self-determination of nations and the belief that all people are equal and that all nations have a right to freedom.”
Rau also told diplomats at the conference that Polish security was based on the country's membership of the NATO alliance.
After his speech, Polish ambassadors were due to be addressed by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, before meeting President Andrzej Duda in the presidential palace later in the day.
Tuesday is day 118 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP