2024-10-17 21:34 update: 2024-10-22, 14:31
Fot. PAP/Radek Pietruszka
Polish President Andrzej Duda and his Swiss counterpart Viola Amherd discussed situation in Ukraine, Poland's upcoming EU presidency and the Swiss-Polish city funds programme, during bilateral talks at the Presidential Palace in Warsaw on Thursday.
During the press conference, Duda said: "Poland supports Ukraine in a military way, Switzerland, due to its neutrality, supports Ukraine economically and with humanitarian aid. The most important factor is that in a political sense, the Polish and Swiss standpoint is absolutely the same."
Duda thanked Amherd for her efforts to organise Ukraine peace talks in June and for hosting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
He also expressed hope that the next editions of the talks will contribute to a peaceful solution, one that "will end the war, with the full respect of international law, Russia will withdraw from the occupied Ukrainian regions, and Ukraine will always be a main partner at the negotiation table."
The Polish president thanked Amherd for the transfer of funds for the Swiss-Polish Cooperation Programme, a platform for the reduction of economic and social disparities within the EU.
Amherd said Poland's EU presidency will fall at "very challenging times concerning the geo-political situation."
She said solidarity between Switzerland and Ukraine has been "programmed for a very long time."
On the second day of her visit, Amherd will meet Szymon Holownia, the speaker of the Sejm, the lower house of parliament, and Malgorzata Kidawa-Blonska, the Senate speaker.
The Swiss president will also lay a wreath at Warsaw's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. (PAP)
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