Warsaw, Tallinn have same security priorities: Polish FM
PR dla Zagranicy
Paweł Kononczuk
09.02.2018 16:03
Warsaw and Tallinn have the same security concerns and will coordinate their positions ahead of a NATO summit in Brussels, Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz said after meeting his Estonian counterpart on Friday.
Sven Mikser and Jacek Czaputowicz at a news conference in Warsaw. Photo: PAP/Radek Pietruszka
Czaputowicz was replying to questions about what Poland and Estonia expected from this July's NATO summit in Brussels, especially in terms of strengthening the Western military alliance’s eastern flank.
"There are no differences in our priorities, activities and perception of security. We will coordinate positions together before the North Atlantic Alliance summit in Brussels," said Czaputowicz, speaking at a joint press conference with Estonian Foreign Minister Sven Mikser, who was on a short visit to Poland.
Common position on security to be discussed
Czaputowicz said that a summit of the “Budapest Nine” would be held in Warsaw in June, bringing together the leaders of countries from the region to discuss a common position on security.
"This will be an important signal for other members of the North Atlantic Alliance that issues regarding ensuring security are important to us," said Czaputowicz.
Mikser, meanwhile, said that NATO's response was fast and clear after Russia annexed the Crimea peninsula in Ukraine in 2014.
At a Warsaw summit in 2016, NATO members agreed to deploy four multinational battalions to Poland and three Baltic states fearing potential Russian aggression.
But the strengthening of the Western military alliance’s eastern flank was not a completed process, Mikser said.
“What we have been doing so far has been focused on land forces... we have to look at other areas,” he added, pointing to naval forces.
(pk/gs)
Source: PAP