Mateusz Morawiecki made the declaration after a meeting on Tuesday with Sundar Pichai, the CEO of tech giant Alphabet Inc and its subsidiary Google, Poland’s PAP news agency reported.
Morawiecki told a media briefing: “We talked with Sundar Pichai about changes in the energy market … We want to cut ourselves off from Russian gas. Poland will do this as one of the first countries in Europe.”
Morawiecki added that his government also wanted to stop buying Russian oil and coal in response to the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Polish prime minister and the Google CEO were joined through video link by Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Janša and a representative for Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala, who was unable to take part in person due to COVID-19, officials told reporters.
Helping refugees from Ukraine
Morawiecki later said in a Facebook post that Pichai “pledged that Google would provide funds to support charities helping Ukrainians in Poland, for which I warmly thank him.”
“I’m pleased that the Polish people and the Polish state are not alone in their efforts,” Morawiecki added.
Combating disinformation
Meanwhile, Pichai announced that Google would invest an additional USD 10 million in partnerships with civil-society organisations to support fact-checking, the PAP news agency reported.
Google will also develop new tools to fight disinformation and “teach how to recognise disinformation,” Pichai said, as quoted by PAP.
Morawiecki welcomed those plans, saying that “one of the primary instruments of the evil empire is propaganda and information warfare.”
'An important country' for Google
Morawiecki also said that Poland was "an important country" for Alphabet and that Google was carrying out new investment projects in Poland "employing world-class IT specialists,” the PAP new agency reported.
Tuesday was day 34 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Poland on Tuesday reported it had welcomed 2.34 million refugees fleeing Russia's attack on Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP