Andrzej Adamczyk made the statement at the Polish-Ukrainian border crossing in the southeastern Polish village of Korczowa on Thursday, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
He and fellow transport ministers visited Korczowa at the end of a two-day conference, known as High-Level Dialogue on Ukraine, which was organised by the Polish infrastructure ministry and the International Transport Forum (ITF).
Entitled Connecting Ukraine with Europe and the World, the event brought together ministers responsible for transport from Europe, North America and Asia, representing Ukraine, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania, Norway, Britain and the United States, among other countries, according to officials.
Ukraine’s Deputy Minister for Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development, Serhiy Derkach, was a guest at the conference, reporters were told.
Adamczyk told reporters in Korczowa that the two-day meeting had explored ways “to reestablish and reinforce” Ukraine’s connections with Europe and the world to enable its companies to trade and the country’s economy to prosper again, after the destruction of war.
He said: “It’s about building road and rail corridors to ensure that passenger and freight transport can flow.”
Ensuring Ukraine’s ‘transport efficiency’
Poland’s infrastructure minister said that participants also noted “the need to build North-South rail routes, such as Rail Baltica and Rail Carpathia.”
According to Adamczyk, such rail connections, coupled with the planned North-South transnational highway network, the Via Carpathia, will ensure Ukraine’s “transport efficiency.”
Adamczyk also announced that the 23 ministers had issued a joint statement, “reaffirming the need to connect Ukraine with Central Europe through corridors that give a sense of security to countries bordering Ukraine and Moldova.”
The statement was signed by ministers from Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Norway, Switzerland and the United States, among others, the PAP news agency reported.
The two-day talks, which took place mainly in the village of Jasionka, near Poland’s southeastern city of Rzeszów, focused on topics such as the role of Central and Eastern Europe as “a gateway to the world for a secure and developing Ukraine” and ways to shape “new transport infrastructure for Ukraine’s sustainable development,” according to officials.
The ministers discussed the role and importance of transport for Ukraine’s European integration and for the free movement of people, goods and services in the context of Russia’s ongoing aggression against Ukraine, including the importance of the EU-Ukraine Solidarity Lanes, news outlets reported.
Friday is day 401 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, gov.pl, money.pl