Albares, Robles, Escrivá and Raquel Sánchez also attend
MADRID, 27 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, travels to Poland this Wednesday and will sign, together with the Prime Minister of Poland, Mateusz Morawiecki, an agreement on Defense with which Spain will express its support for the role that this country has acquired after the start of the war in Ukraine and another on Transport, which includes the participation of the Executive in a million-dollar project for a transport logistics center.
Sánchez and his Polish counterpart will therefore celebrate the XIV Hispanic-Polish Summit in Warsaw after the last edition that took place in Alcalá de Henares in May 2021. In this official trip, the Government intends to highlight, on the one hand, the important bilateral relations from the economic and commercial point of view and also to underline the role that Poland is playing after the outbreak of the war, according to government sources.
In this sense, they will sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to express mutual collaboration in Defense, at a time when Poland faces high exposure – it is one of the NATO members that is part of the eastern flank – -, has received 4.7 million Ukrainian refugees and has increased its security budget, according to Moncloa sources.
The agreed document will be of mutual collaboration in general terms, it will serve to symbolize this closeness after the NATO Summit in Madrid and will include, for example, the development of collaboration between the Ministries of the branch of both countries and the exchange expert visits.
Along with Sánchez, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, the Minister of Transport and Urban Agenda, Raquel Sánchez and the Minister of Social Security, Migration and Inclusion, José Luis Escriva.
On the other hand, a framework declaration will be signed in support of the first contract between the public company INECO and its Polish counterpart for the development of the ‘Solidarity’ transport hub, a knot of air, road and rail connections that Poland wants to put underway in the coming years and will have a total investment of 28,000 million euros. At the summit in Alcalá de Henares, the Ministry headed by José Luis Ábalos had already offered the collaboration of Spain to participate in the project.
Commercial exchanges between Spain and Poland continue to increase and last year they reached a record figure of 14,600 million euros, according to the aforementioned sources. Likewise, many Spanish companies continue to increase their activity in this country, which in 2021 grew by 5.7% and this year it will do so by 3.7% according to forecasts.
Therefore, the Executive attaches great importance to the bilateral relationship with one of the largest countries in the European Union, which, in addition to hosting millions of Ukrainians fleeing the war, has played an important role in trying to get grain out of railway before the Russian blockade.
In this regard, from the Executive they point out that this project is underway although they celebrate the agreement signed last Friday between Ukraine and Russia to resume grain exports from Ukrainian ports and they trust that it will be carried out since it is the best option for sell the grain and prevent a food crisis.
Sánchez and Morawiecki will hold a first bilateral meeting, while the rest of the ministers who attend the summit will have meetings with their counterparts to discuss the specific issues of each department. Next, a plenary meeting will be held in which everyone will participate and finally a joint press conference of the two leaders.
With this trip, Sánchez resumes the official visit that was initially scheduled for last April –also to Moldova– to give his support to two countries bordering Ukraine and therefore very affected by the war and which was finally postponed by the voting of the first anti-crisis decree in the Congress of Deputies.
