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We stand together with Ukraine: Foreign Minister Baerbock travels to Warsaw
Foreign Minister Baerbock travels to Warsaw, © Thomas Imo/photothek.net
Today, on the Day of German Unity, Foreign Minister Baerbock is heading for Warsaw. Her trip is to focus on joint support for Ukraine, as well as on bilateral relations.
Poland is Germany’s largest neighbour to the east, an important partner in the European Union and NATO and a country with which Germany has close ties given the chequered history they share. Today, 18 years after Poland joined the European Union and just over 30 years since the Iron Curtain was torn down, relations between the people along the Oder and the Neisse are closer than ever before.
Poland as a pioneer of German unity
The courageous Poles who demonstrated for freedom, democracy and political participation in the shipyards in Gdansk in 1980 and then all across the country under the Solidarność (Solidarity) banner served as a role model, also for the people in the GDR. They showed that change is possible. Attending today’s celebrations of the Day of German Unity in Warsaw, Foreign Minister Baerbock will pay tribute to the special role Poland played in German reunification.
Solidarity and joint support for Ukraine
The second day of the visit is to focus on joint support for Ukraine. On Tuesday morning, Foreign Minister Baerbock is to meet her colleague Zbigniew Rau. The priority in these talks is how Germany and Poland can continue supporting Ukraine as effectively as possible.
Foreign Minister Baerbock emphasised the following prior to her departure:
We are standing up together as Europeans against Russia’s war of aggression and Putin’s attempts to illegally shift borders in eastern Europe. In Warsaw, I plan to talk to my Polish counterpart about how we can together increase our assistance to Ukraine even further. We know that Europe is strong today because it is holding together.
Foreign Minister Baerbock is then to attend the Warsaw Security Forum – a high-level meeting focusing this year on the impact of Russia’s war against Ukraine in terms of security policy and geopolitics. Germany is the guest country this year and many German policymakers in the field of security and numerous experts are to attend.
Launched in 2014, the Warsaw Security Forum is organised by the Casimir Pulaski Foundation, since 2020 in partnership with the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Foreign Minister Baerbock will take part in a panel discussion entitled United We Stand, Divided We Fall. Europe’s response to the War in Ukraine.