Speaking at a conference in the Polish Senate titled “Security of the Baltic Sea – shared responsibility of democratic states,” Sikorski said the area was “one of the most important places where the fate of our continent is being decided.”
He described the Baltic as a region where “two worlds” intersect – “our democratic one and the Russian autocratic one” – and said democratic countries had a duty to protect their own system.
Citing German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, Sikorski said the security of the Baltic region was inseparable from the security of Europe as a whole. He added that decisions taken there would have consequences “for our continent and, in turn, for the world.”
Sikorski argued that the global order was in a transitional phase and that future realities would depend partly on cooperation among Baltic and other democratic states.
So far, he said, that cooperation was working “quite well,” pointing to support for Ukraine, successive sanctions packages against Russia, coordinated actions to counter border provocations, efforts to prevent illegal migration and the fight against disinformation.
These steps, he said, were helping to build “multidimensional resilience” in societies.
The minister stressed that Poland was not shirking its responsibilities to others and noted that the United States had clearly signaled it expected Warsaw to take on more responsibility for defense – an expectation he called justified.
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the region had entered a phase of fulfilling specific, solidarity-based commitments, Sikorski said.
“We cannot live in fear and yield to Russia, regardless of how absurd its demands are,” he added, noting that the combined GDP of the Baltic Sea Council states is more than three and a half times that of Russia. Economic strength alone does not win conflicts, he said, but it defines potential.
Sikorski said Baltic democracies had “something to fight for,” including shared values, and “enough strength and resources” to defend them. Cooperation, he argued, should go beyond the military domain to include new technologies, academic exchange and energy, areas from which all would benefit.
He said Russia had become a regional power in the Baltic partly because others had created opportunities for it, including allowing it to become one of the Baltic Sea states.
The region is commonly understood to include the sea itself and the territories of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, parts of Russia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and parts of Germany, with Russia accessing the Baltic through the Kaliningrad exclave.
“We are now dealing with the consequences,” Sikorski said, adding that time could not be reversed but the lesson was clear: wars over border changes waste lives, wealth and development opportunities, while deeper cooperation could gradually blur borders.
“Perhaps one day the authorities in Moscow will also understand this,” he said.
(jh)
Source: PAP