Sweden's Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom said on Monday during his visit to Warsaw that his government ruled nothing out when it came to supporting Ukraine to win a "decisive victory" on the battlefield against Russia's invasion. "We jointly support the aspirations of Ukraine and Moldova to begin accession negotiations to the European Union before the end of this year," Poland's Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau said at joint a press conference with Billstrom.
Minister for Foreign Affairs of Sweden Tobias Billstrom said on Monday in Warsaw that Ukraine's territorial integrity - "including Crimea" - had to be restored and Sweden was working on bringing forward a new package of European Union sanctions on Russia, in its position at the helm of the bloc's rotating presidency.
"As my prime minister has already said, and I repeat it here and now, we do not rule out any kind of help towards Ukraine in the future. Not any kind. We have to stand by Ukraine for as long as it takes until they have won a victory, a decisive victory, in the battlefield against Russia, which is the only way of ending this war," Billstrom said.
"As for sanctions, well, we are now in our capacity as (chairing) the presidency of the European Union, involved in the project of bringing forward the 11th sanctions package, which I hope we will be able to deliver before the next meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council. I think that this sanctions package, along with the others, are not only about bringing forward new sanctions but also plugging the loopholes and preventing the circumvention of the already existing sanctions, which is a very important thing. Thank you," he added.
Poland's Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau said the two countries wanted to see EU accession negotiations begin for Ukraine and Moldova by the end of the year, and for Georgia to become a candidate country.
Rau also levelled criticism at the EU's newly-agreed migration deal, which Poland opposed, saying it affected countries' ability to "democratically determine their futures."
"For us and the overwhelming majority of Polish society, it (the EU migration deal) is a project which is inconceivable in its most basic foundations. That is why it evidently rejects many values upon which our lives rest, our international life, as well as in the European Union. Simply put, our life together," Rau added.
European Union ministers agreed on Thursday (June 8) on how to share out the responsibility for looking after migrants and refugees, after 12 hours of negotiations got Italy and Greece to sign up to a deal that has eluded the bloc for nearly a decade.
Źródło: TVN24 News in English, Reuters