(2 Jul 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Warsaw - 2 July 2024
1. Various of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk entering conference room, standing behind podiums ++MUTE++
2. SOUNDBITE (German) Olaf Scholz, German Chancellor:
"The close partnership between Germans and Poles is very important to us. Germany wants a very strong Polish voice in Europe. In order to be able to shape a good future, an unbiased view of the past is of course indispensable. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising and the 85th anniversary of the horrific, brutal German invasion of Poland. We Germans inflicted immeasurable suffering on the Polish citizens of our neighbors during the Second World War. Germany recognizes the gravity of its guilt, its responsibility for the millions of victims of the German occupation and the mission that arises from it. Germany will therefore also endeavor to take measures to support the surviving victims of the German attack and occupation in the years '39 to '45."
3. Scholz and Tusk at news conference ++MUTE++
4. SOUNDBITE (German) Olaf Scholz, German Chancellor:
"Germany will also strengthen remembrance and commemoration of our painful shared history. To this end, the Federal Cabinet decided last week to establish a place of remembrance in Berlin to commemorate the Polish victims of the Second World War and the Nazi occupation. The German-Polish House is intended to be a visible sign against forgetting and a reminder for the future.”
5. Scholz and Tusk at news conference ++MUTE++
6. SOUNDBITE (German) Olaf Scholz, German Chancellor:
"After all, it is quite clear that remembrance and coming to terms with the past will never be complete for us. And Germany recognizes its historical responsibility without ifs and buts. And that is why the German government is always in dialogue with the Polish government on issues relating to the enormous task of coming to terms with the past. And we are constantly working to ensure that we can achieve improvements. As far as the issue of reparations is concerned, that is. The German government's legal position on this is well known. But that doesn't change the fact that we are constantly looking at how we can improve things. And that is why I have also mentioned here that we will continue to make proposals in this regard and push things forward on our own initiative, because we believe that we have this responsibility. Everyone can rely on that. And the situation of older victims, for example, is one that concerns us greatly. And we will also undertake activities in this area.”
7. Scholz and Tusk shaking hands ++MUTE++
8. Scholz and Tusk leaving ++MUTE++
STORYLINE:
The leaders of Poland and Germany on Tuesday held wide bilateral consultations aimed at giving a new impulse to neighborly relations that sagged under Poland’s previous government, and to jointly declare responsibility for Europe’s security in turbulent times.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz traveled with 12 ministers and government members, including Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, for the meeting in Warsaw.
"Close partnership between Germany and Poland is very important to us,” Scholz told a joint news conference with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
Such wide consultations were most recently held in November 2018.
Tusk's government, which took office in December, is taking steps to mend the ties.
Tusk, a former EU Council head, said that Poland's and the continent's security was his priority and emphasized the importance of cooperation in this area between the two countries.
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