Andrzej Duda made the remark as he addressed an international conference on infrastructure in Warsaw, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
Part of a series of events called Europe of the Carpathians, Tuesday’s conference was titled Redefinition of logistics chains in the new TEN-T [The Trans-European Transport Network] transport policy.
It explored the changes in European Union's transport policy and the expansion of Europe's transport network being made necessary by the war in Ukraine and the situation in Moldova, officials said.
‘Security depends on good infrastructure’
Addressing the gathering, the Polish president said that “building our security, boosting our country’s development potential, depends on good infrastructure.”
“I’m glad that Europe increasingly realises this,” he added, noting that “now these roads are bringing military equipment to Ukraine” to help Kyiv repel the Russian invasion.
Duda stressed that fast communication routes “allow us to deliver armoured vehicles and tanks from ports in Germany, from Poland’s Szczecin, Gdańsk and Gdynia, to where they are needed.”
Poland’s head of state also highlighted the importance of the planned North-to-South, Lithuania-to-Greece transnational highway network called Via Carpathia.
He told the audience: “You have to travel south via this route, because it will be the point of departure for further travel. And further lies Ukraine.”
Ukraine’s potential
Duda stressed Ukraine’s economic potential, noting it encompassed “more than 600,000 square kilometres of a gigantic, wealthy country, with 40 million consumers, with the Black Sea, with enormous development prospects, with the farming sector, a breadbasket for half the world.”
The Polish president said he was pleased that “we are building the strength of this part of Europe, also by developing infrastructure.”
He added that events like Tuesday’s conference “provide the stimulus for such transport links to be created.”
“Some are already in place, but they are still too weak,” Duda urged.
From Finland to Ukraine
Poland’s president emphasised: “We want to be able to drive along high-speed roads and highways from Helsinki and Tallinn, through such countries as Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria, all the way to Greece, to Turkey, to Moldova and to Ukraine.”
“I hope we will do it soon,” Duda told the conference.
Tuesday is day 356 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
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Source: PAP, prezydent.pl, wpolityce.pl