Andrzej Duda’s words came as he met with his Lithuanian counterpart Gitanas Nausėda in the village of Szypliszki near the northeastern Polish city of Suwałki on Thursday, Poland's PAP news agency reported.
The two presidents held talks accompanied by Poland’s Defence Minister Mariusz Błaszczak and Lithuania’s Arvydas Anušauskas.
At a joint news conference with Nausėda afterwards, Duda said: “The Suwałki Gap is a hugely important place not just for Poland and Lithuania, but for the whole NATO alliance.”
The Polish president added that the narrow corridor “links Lithuania and Poland, but it also connects Lithuania and the other Baltic states with the rest of the European Union and with fellow NATO countries.”
Moreover, “it separates the Kaliningrad region, the Russian exclave, from Belarus,” Duda said.
He stressed: “There’s no hiding the fact that for this reason, the Suwałki Gap is specially guarded by NATO forces.”
'Suwałki Gap is secure’
The Polish president went on to say: “Together with President Nausėda, we decided to visit the Suwałki Gap, both on the Polish and Lithuanian side, to show that it is secure.”
He added: “The Suwałki Gap is secure thanks to the day-to-day, calm but absolutely vigilant, presence of Polish, Lithuanian and NATO soldiers.”
The meeting of the Polish and Lithuanian leaders in Szypliszki took place at a mobile command post of the NATO Multinational Division North East (MND-NE), the PAP news agency reported.
Later in the day, Duda and Nausėda were scheduled to visit the Lithuanian Grand Duke Vytenis General Support Battalion in Marijampolė in the south of Lithuania.
The Suwałki Gap is nestled between northeastern Poland and southern Lithuania. It is flanked on either side by Belarus and Russia's Kaliningrad exclave.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said last month that Poland and the Baltic states wanted to see a stronger NATO defensive presence in the area.
According to the politico.eu website, “in a showdown between Russia and NATO," the Suwałki Gap "would likely be the first point of contact.”
Thursday was day 134 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, prezydent.pl