Polish and Swedish security experts at round table meeting
President Andrzej Duda met with security experts at the first Polish-Swedish round table meeting on security policy. The energy policy, defense cooperation in the EU and NATO unity were the major topics of the discussions.
According to the head of the National Security Bureau (BBN) Paweł Soloch, the president inaugurating the two-day proceedings, which ended in the Belweder Palace on Tuesday, took a hard line when discussing aggressive Russian politics and the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which he argues undermines the security of Poland and Sweden.
"The president explicitly evaluated this project as an instrument for the destabilisation of this part of Europe," Soloch observed.
The participants of the round table meeting also discussed the Permanent Structured Cooperation of EU states (PESCO). The head of BBN said that "the president also pointed out, that he is a great supporter of Poland's PESCO membership, providing that it will be held in full synchronisation with NATO membership."
Andrzej Duda also said that "creating European security structures is to be a support for NATO, not its competition."
Paweł Soloch said that the president raised the issue of supporting NATO membership for Georgia and Ukraine and that he stood against some opinions which state that supporting these countries could be a provocation for Russia.
The round table meeting was organised by the National Security Bureau and the Swedish Embassy in Warsaw. It was attended by representatives of administration and think tanks from Poland and Sweden.
Specific sessions were concerned with the situation of security in the region, hybrid threats, and cooperation with NATO, including the further development of partnership cooperation between Sweden and NATO and strengthening the European defence policy.
Source: PAP