Poland and Ukraine entering a period of decline – Poland's Foreign Minister on not attending EU foreign ministers' meeting in Kyiv

Zbigniew Rau, Poland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, has said he did not attend the meeting of the EU foreign ministers because of his poor health and because of the deterioration in the relationship between Poland and Ukraine.

Source: Zbigniew Rau on air on Polsat News

Details: Rau said that the ministers’ informal meeting in Kyiv was "important" and explained that there were "many reasons" for his absence, including the state of his health.

"Above all, however, this is due to the fact that in politics there are periods of boom and bust, especially in bilateral politics between different countries. As for the relations between Poland and Ukraine, we are currently entering a period of decline, and my absence is partly an expression of this," he added.

When asked whether his absence in Kyiv was related to Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s speech at the UN General Assembly, Rau did not answer directly, but stressed that Ukraine and Poland have a "common strategic interest – to stop Russian imperialism".

"The incident when a sectoral dispute was brought up on an international level, especially the way it happened – during the meeting of the UN General Assembly – has shaken our public’s confidence in the current policy of the Ukrainian government towards Poland, to put it mildly," Rau said.

Background:

• Relations between Ukraine and Poland are in crisis due to disagreements over trade issues. Still, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba believes that there will "inevitably" be a way out of the crisis in relations between Poland and Ukraine.

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