During the press briefing after the meeting, President Duda pointed out that Poland is in a critical moment. He reminded that the summit of the Bucharest Nine with the participation of US President Joe Biden will take place next week in Warsaw. B9 unites Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary.
Polish President discusses security with U.K. PM
Polish President Andrzej Duda has arrived in London, where he met with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in Downing Street. The talks in London…
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The U.K. Prime Minister praised Poland’s resilience and international leadership following the Russian aggression on Ukraine. He assured the UK and Poland were entirely alignedin their support of the attacked country.
Both politicians agreed it was important that support to Ukraine was intensified in the coming weeks. They also discussed the training of Ukrainian pilots on NATO standard fighter jets that will begin in the U.K.
2️⃣ dzień ofensywy dyplomatycznej Prezydenta @AndrzejDuda. Za nami spotkanie z Premierem Wielkiej Brytanii @RishiSunak.
Tematy rozmowy:
✅ bezpieczeństwo wschodniej flanki NATO,
✅ stosunki 🇵🇱🇬🇧,
✅ pomoc Ukrainie. pic.twitter.com/Bc5CgqN6BA
— Kancelaria Prezydenta (@prezydentpl) February 16, 2023
“This is a very important moment to finally discuss what we want to achieve and what decisions we want to make at the NATO summit in Vilnius,” President Duda said.
“We discussed this with the Prime Minister [of U.K.] today,” the President said.
He thanked Sunak for his participation in the so-called “tank coalition” and donating Challenger tanks to Ukraine.
“This is a very important element of strengthening Ukraine’s defense,” said Duda. He reminded that at the moment, training of Ukrainian soldiers on Leopard tanks is underway in Poland.
BREAKING: PM Rishi Sunak is meeting with Polish President Andrzej Duda in Number 10 Downing Street to help 'strengthen Poland's security'
Latest: https://t.co/PAiZ4D1jU3
📺 Sky 501, Virgin 602, Freeview 233 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/zpNrPr6rTc
— Sky News (@SkyNews) February 16, 2023
President Duda also announced that he had talked with the head of the British government, about the prospect of rebuilding Ukraine after the end of the Russian invasion.
“I said that we hope for British support to be part of this coalition of countries that will participate in these economic processes related to the reconstruction of Ukraine. In this respect, we are also a key transit country when it comes to communication from the West to Ukraine,” President Duda said.
“I would like that in the future it would be beneficial for our relations with Ukraine, that Polish companies would participate in this reconstruction process in Ukraine,” the president said.
🇵🇱 Elsewhere in politics, Rishi Sunak has welcomed the Polish President Andrzej Duda to No10
Follow our politics live blog for the latest ⤵️https://t.co/fK5qFz4Zyn pic.twitter.com/FC5jRqdbiQ
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) February 16, 2023
During the briefing, President Duda was asked, among other things, whether Great Britain would send more soldiers to Poland as part of strengthening NATO’s eastern flank.
Duda replied that the expected decisions of the upcoming NATO summit in Vilnius were discussed during the meeting. He noted that he also raised this topic on Wednesday in Brussels during a meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
“We would like the NATO summit in Vilnius to decide, just like the NATO summit in Madrid, to strengthen us – in terms of the speed of reaction, increasing the size of potential defense or NATO’s deterrent forces in the event of a threat,” said the president.
🇵🇱🇺🇸 Na zaproszenie Prezydenta @AndrzejDuda w przyszłym tygodniu Polskę odwiedzi @POTUS. To druga w ciągu roku wizyta Prezydenta USA w naszym kraju. Głównym punktem programu będą rozmowy obu przywódców w Pałacu Prezydenckim.@JoeBiden będzie też gościem specjalnym szczytu #B9. pic.twitter.com/rhtkjFiC0i
— Kancelaria Prezydenta (@prezydentpl) February 16, 2023
“Our security is to be strengthened not by defending ourselves, but by the fact that these forces will be so strong, so respectable that they will discourage any potential attacker from an attack, from any attempts to enter or attack NATO territory,” Duda noted.