(2 Jul 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Warsaw - 02 July 2024
1. Various of Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk receiving German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Tusk and Scholtz inspecting guards, entering building
2. SOUNDBITE (Polish) Donald Tusk, Polish Prime Minister:
"Europe is dramatically disintegrated in terms of basic coordination and cooperation at the technical and cyber levels. We have a great task to do."
3. Tusk and Scholz during news conference
4. SOUNDBITE (Polish) Donald Tusk, Polish Prime Minister:
"The issue of continental security cannot be a matter of separate, and sometimes conflicting, competing initiatives. We have these initiatives... I myself cannot count how many agreements and formats there are, the aim of which is to ensure the security of Europe, but they actually stand still."
5. Close to EU, Polish and German flags
6. Tusk and Scholz during news conference
7. SOUNDBITE (Polish) Donald Tusk, Polish Prime Minister:
"Europe may accept some responsibility for our security, but I have no expectations. We can handle it, we spend 4% (of GDP) on our defense. I don't want Germany to buy us tanks, there is no topic about it at all. We make our own purchases and we will be more efficient at it than any other country in Europe. We are not asking anyone for anything in this matter."
8. Tusk and Scholz during news conference
9. SOUNDBITE (Polish) Donald Tusk, Polish Prime Minister:
"No nation, as much as Poland and Germany, should have a sense of responsibility for the security and protection of Europe against external aggression. Poland as one of the greatest victims of World War II, Germany as the perpetrators of this misfortune, this tragedy of World War II. Today, as free, democratic, European nations, we should together effectively ensure that Europe is safe and that the tragedy of war will never be repeated on our lands."
10. Tusk and Scholz shaking hands
11. Tusk and Scholz leaving
12. Polish and European Union flags outside the Polish Prime Minister Chancellery
13. Various of exteriors
STORYLINE:
Government 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.
Poland’s right-wing government that was in power until last year adopted a hostile attitude toward Berlin, accusing Germany of excessive influence on European Union decision-making, and focusing on demanding reparations for the losses that Nazi German occupation caused Poland during World War II.
Tusk's government, which took office in December, is taking steps to mend the ties.
The relationship has gained special significance in the face of Russia's military campaign in Ukraine, just across Poland's and the 27-member EU's eastern border, and pressure of irregular migration from the Middle East and Africa, which Poland and the EU say is a part of Russia's and ally Belarus' hybrid war on Europe.
Tusk, a former EU Council head, said that Poland's and the continent's security was his priority and that “as free, democratic, European nations, we should together effectively ensure that Europe is safe."
He criticized European countries for lacking coordination and determination in taking steps for the continent's joint security.
AP video by Rafal Niedzielski
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