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Poland, Ukraine should sign new good-neighbours’ treaty: Polish deputy FM

07.06.2022 08:30
A Polish deputy foreign minister has said that Poland and Ukraine should sign a new treaty on good neighbourly relations.
Marcin Przydacz.
Marcin Przydacz.PAP/Piotr Nowak

Marcin Przydacz made the suggestion in an interview with the state news agency PAP on Tuesday.

The deputy foreign minister said that the existing, 1992 agreement required “an update to reflect the current potential” of bilateral relations.

Przydacz noted that in 1992, Poland had not yet been a member of NATO or the European Union, while Ukraine was also “in a totally different reality.”

He stated: “Ukraine has clearly chosen a pro-Western orientation and the best possible relations with Poland.”

“Ukraine is also beginning to invoke our shared history,” the diplomat said.

President Duda proposes new Polish-Ukrainian treaty

Poland’s President Andrzej Duda called for a new Polish-Ukrainian good neighbours’ treaty during a visit to Kyiv last month. 

At a joint news conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Duda said that the agreement could be signed early next year, to mark 160 years since the anti-Russian January Uprising of 1863.

Zelensky voiced support for the Polish president’s proposal, calling Poland “a priority country for Ukraine” and the current bilateral relations “the best in centuries.”   

According to Przydacz, the Ukrainian president's approval for the Polish plan as regards a new treaty is "highly symbolic," the PAP news agency reported.

Tuesday is day 104 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 

Poland on Monday reported it had welcomed 3.859 million refugees fleeing Russia’s war on Ukraine.  

(pm)

Source: PAP, wnp.pl