If forced to choose, Poland will choose US over China, foreign min says
Poland may play a role in easing tensions between the United States and China, but if Beijing forces Warsaw to make a choice, it will choose the US over China, the Polish foreign minister has said.
Speaking to PAP in Washington on Saturday, the last day of his US visit, where he attended a NATO summit, Radoslaw Sikorski said that Poland had had a history of facilitating US-China talks, referring to ambassadorial talks held in Warsaw during communist times, in the Richard Nixon era, when Washington and Beijing did not have formal diplomatic relations.
"Let me remind you that dozens (of talks) took place in Poland - I believe over one hundred - between the United States and China even during communist times," Sikorski said. "Poland may play this kind of role.
"Let's remember that international trade is responsible for a bigger part of the GDP in Europe than in the US," he continued. "So a global trade war would hit us even more. We should try to prevent that."
But, on the other hand, China should not support "the biggest war in Europe in our modern history without a negative impact on its interests and reputation," Sikorski said, referring to reports that China may have been supporting Russia in its war against Ukraine.
"It is with a Bolshevik honesty that we say to our Chinese comrades, that if they force us to choose between our most important trade partner and our main ally, the United States, then of course we will choose the United States." (PAP)
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