For the last five years, we have built the Baltic Sea pipeline to Norway, and in six months we will be independent of Russian gas for the first time in decades”, said Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki in Vienna after a meeting with Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer.
At the conference, Morawiecki also addressed security, i.e., border protection and independence from raw materials.
“Austria, the Czech Republic, Lithuania and Poland share the same view on the need to defend our external borders. And we were right: borders must be protected. It’s up to us who we take in and who we don’t. We are in this position to this day,” stressed the Prime Minister.
“Today we must also recognise that a new geopolitical world order is being forged beyond our eastern border, Ukraine,” he added.
Morawiecki pointed out that “for the last five years, we have built a Baltic gas pipeline to Norway and in six months we will be independent of Russian gas for the first time in decades.” “The consistent action of our government has led to this possibility”, added the Prime Minister.
“We want to cooperate with a peaceful and democratic Russia, but we cannot allow it to destroy Ukraine’s sovereignty in such a cruel way,” he explained.
The Prime Minister also announced measures to give Ukraine hope for the future. “Today Ukraine is fighting for freedom, democracy, sovereignty and tolerance. Are these not the most important European values? These are the fundamental values of Europe, and Ukraine is fighting for these certain values”, said Morawiecki. He also stressed that we “support European ambitions and Ukraine’s accession to the European Union.” “This is the basic hope”, he added. However, he insisted that this is “a process.”
“Today we must also hope for a new Marshall Plan for a sovereign post-war Ukraine. We want this war to end as soon as possible. The member states of the European Union want to participate in a rapid reconstruction, we want to give Ukraine hope for a rapid reconstruction of an independent Ukrainian state,” assured Morawiecki.