Andrzej Duda and Borut Pahor met at Warsaw’s Belweder Palace before noon, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
EU candidate status for Ukraine
At a joint news conference afterwards, the Polish president said: “First and foremost, I would like to thank President Pahor for supporting our initiative to grant Ukraine European Union candidate status.”
He added that the proposal “is now being very seriously considered by the EU.”
Duda said he hoped the bloc’s leaders “will adopt the initiative and Ukraine will indeed become a candidate for EU membership.”
Stopping Russian aggression
The Polish president said his talks with Pahor had focused on “the big question, namely how to ensure that Russia stops its aggression against Ukraine and retreats.”
‘Ukraine must regain its territory’
“It is my deep conviction that Ukraine must regain its internationally recognised territory,” Duda went on to say.
“This is what the free and democratic world, and its leaders, should seek to achieve,” the Polish president urged.
Duda and Pahor also discussed support for war refugees, military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, and Sweden’s and Finland’s bids to join NATO, reporters were told.
It was another meeting with a counterpart from the region for the Polish head of state, who recently also held talks with the presidents of Slovakia, Estonia and Hungary.
Friday was day 86 of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Poland on Friday reported it had welcomed almost 3.5 million refugees fleeing Russia's war on Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP