2024-07-02 13:47 update: 2024-07-03, 14:54
Donad Tusk. Photo PAP/Marcin Obara
Poland and Germany will cooperate to increase the protection of the EU's external borders and promote European air defence, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said in Warsaw on Tuesday after talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Poland and Germany held intergovernmental consultations for the first time since 2018 at the Polish Prime Minister's Office on Tuesday.
At a joint press conference with Scholz, which followed the talks, Tusk said that he was pleased to hear from Scholz that Germany was ready to take responsibility for the protection of the EU's eastern borders along with other EU member states.
Tusk has recently announced a large-scale programme of strengthening Poland's border with Belarus and Russia, dubbed Shield East. The Baltic states have suggested a similar joint project, and all four countries have been in talks on how to integrate the two initiatives.
"Our project called Shield East, together with the Baltic states' project, is an infrastructural one, which is designed to bolster the security of the European border," Tusk said.
"And there is no doubt that it is also in the interest of the German state for the border to be protected effectively and that Poland, Germany and Europe were safe also in case of aggression on the eastern border," Tusk continued.
Tusk went on to say that "I was very satisfied to hear that Poland and Germany will cooperate towards bilateral solutions, but also towards the European Sky Shield."
A German initiative, European Sky Shield is a project to build a ground-based integrated European air-defence system. Some 21 countries are now participating in the programme. (PAP)
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