WARSAW

To combat anti-democratic tendencies in the developing world, Europe needs to take a more active approach to countries of the Global South and deepen cooperation, while China is and will remain an important trading partner of the continent, Poland’s foreign minister said Wednesday.

“Russia is trying to increase its influence in this group and undermine democratic mechanisms,” Radoslaw Sikorski told the lower house of the Polish parliament.

The most important goals of Polish foreign policy are to strengthen European defense capabilities and maintain transatlantic unity and cooperation, including close cooperation with the US, Sikorski added.

He reiterated that Poland will not send troops to Ukraine as part of a peacekeeping mission.

“You will never rule here again. Neither in Kyiv, nor in Vilnius, nor in Riga, nor in Tallinn, nor in Chisinau; instead of fantasizing about re-conquering Warsaw, worry about whether you will hold Vladivostok,” he said, addressing Russia and referring to the former Soviet Union.

“In its geopolitical and sacral-geographic development, Russia is not interested in the existence of an independent Polish state in any form. It is also not interested in the existence of Ukraine,” said Sikorski.

“Poland and Germany bear a special responsibility for the security of Europe. For the last eight years, the United Right governments pursued a ‘cold war’ policy toward Germany, but in reality they pursued a policy of mobilizing their electorate at the expense of foreign policy,” Sikorski said.

The foreign minister argued that the borders of Poland, NATO, the EU and the Schengen area “must be defended not only against [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's army but also against illegal migration, which is part of the hybrid war of the dictators of Russia and Belarus.”