Polish FM warns of Russian threat on 25th anniversary of Nato accession
The West must act accordingly in the face of Russia's threat to European security, the Polish foreign minister has said.
"If the politicians of the West have believed that Russia under Putin's reign has become an existential threat to us, then we must act in line with the diagnosis," Radoslaw Sikorski said on Friday, during a lecture at the University of Warsaw on Friday.
Sikorski made his comment just days before the 25th anniversary of Poland joining Nato.
"Not for applause, but to ensure the safety of our citizens," he continued. "(We must act - PAP) not against Nato, but be for its strengthening, not to escalate the conflict, but to end it swiftly and deter the potential opponent."
Referring to Poland joining the Western military bloc on March 12, 1999, Sikorski said: "The world today is more dangerous than it was 25 years ago, the post-war order of the world is swaying, but it has not collapsed yet."
"Nato's power of attraction is still immense," he mentioned, pointing to the recent accession of both Sweden and Finland to the alliance.
"I hope that Ukraine will someday join too," Sikorski added.
He said that the West will either have to deal with the defeated army of Russian President Vladimir Putin on Ukraine's eastern border or with a victorious Putin's army on the eastern border of Nato.
"Polish and European interests have converged at this point in time and it is our actions that will determine which one of those scenarios will come to be," he said.
"The trial hour has come, we cannot disappoint, all of us, and we will not." (PAP)
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