Mateusz Morawiecki made the remark after a meeting between Polish and Spanish government ministers in Warsaw on Wednesday, Poland's PAP news agency reported.
The talks, officially known as intergovernmental consultations, were led by Morawiecki and his Spanish counterpart Pedro Sánchez.
'Russia is unable to blackmail us'
At a joint news conference with the Spanish prime minister afterwards, Morawiecki said: “Understanding the challenges posed by Russia’s policy, Poland began building the Baltic Pipe pipeline from Norway and several interconnectors, while also working to increase the capacity of our LNG terminal in the northwestern city of Świnoujście.”
He added: “As a result, by the end of this year, we can be fully and genuinely sovereign when it comes to gas supply.”
“Russia is unable to blackmail us in the way that it has been blackmailing Germany,” Morawiecki told reporters.
“We were right and our Western partners are acknowledging it,” he added.
He urged Western partners “to do everything they can” to end their dependence on Russian gas supplies, telling reporters that Russia was "weaponising gas as part of a war not just against Ukraine but against the whole of Europe.”
'Need to end reliance on Russian gas'
Morawiecki said that Poland and Spain shared a common stance on natural gas supplies and "the need for independence" from Russian supplies.
“Spain is perfectly aware of the need to end the reliance on Russian gas,” he said.
Referring to Tuesday’s agreement by European Union countries to voluntarily cut gas consumption by 15 percent this winter, in anticipation of potential further cuts in gas supply from Russia, Morawiecki said: “Yesterday, thanks to the coordinated actions of Poland and Spain, it was possible to reach an agreement on gas with the European Commission, which was reasonable for Poland, Spain and Europe."
He added: "This shows how Polish-Spanish cooperation worked in practice.”
Polish-Spanish talks
Morawiecki hailed the Polish-Spanish intergovernmental consultations as “very fruitful.”
He said: “We can be on opposite ends of the continent, but we get along very well on all issues. This is the relationship between our governments. We had a very fruitful meeting today.”
Morawiecki added: “We have discussed matters of fundamental importance because we know that we are on a geopolitical turning point. We discussed ... the security of our borders, energy security and inflation, which affects both Spain and Poland.”
Wednesday was day 154 of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, dziennik.pl