President Duda tells Georgians Poland will back their EU, NATO bid
Polish President Andrzej Duda has assured the Georgian people that Poland will continue to be their reliable ally and promote Georgia's EU and NATO accession.
The Polish president attended Georgia's Independence Day ceremonies on Wednesday.
"Our unity and solidarity must stand against any imperial march," Duda said, referring to Russia's assertive stance in the region.
"I'd like to reiterate it loud here that there is enough room in the united Europe and Nato to accommodate our friends from Eastern Europe, to accommodate Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova," the Polish president continued.
Poland has been advocating for further expansion of both the EU and Nato for years.
But Nato and the EU are unlikely to accept Georgia as a new member any time soon due to the frozen conflict between the country and Russia, which spawned the Republic of South Ossetia, a small entity which in recognised by only a handful of countries and which Georgia claims as part of its territory.
At a later visit to the EU Observation Mission on the demarcation line between Georgia and South Ossetia, Duda called Russia "a country that doesn't behave normally", and an "aggressor" whose conduct called for a determined international response.
"Russia's aggressive, imperial policy, which deprives people of their development options and normal livelihood, and which leads to the destruction of countries and to warfare in which people die and are wounded, is a policy which cannot be tolerated by the international community," Duda said. (PAP)
liv/
