Ukraine and Poland: Strong Military and Political Partners, Need Economic Reset – Kuleba

There’s no need to reset policy with Poland, but Kyiv and Warsaw have to work through their economic issues, Ukraine’s top diplomat said Tuesday.

“There is no need to restart political relations with Poland or military cooperation,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba said in a televised interview with Yedini Novyni.

“It is appropriate to talk about restarting relations in the economic sector. We do not need to restart relations in politics, in military cooperation, in the support we receive from Poland on the way to the European Union and NATO. But relations in economic matters need to be rebooted. This is true,” Kuleba said.

Starting Nov. 6, several Polish transport companies organized a blockade of the busiest crossing points with Ukraine – protesting competition from Ukraine, the transport companies demanded that the EU reinstate permits for Ukrainian truckers.

Kyiv and Warsaw are in intensive contact with each other working to resolve the Polish transport company blockade at the border of the two countries, Kuleba said.

“The signals we receive from Poland indicate that they are determined to solve the problems. We are also determined to solve problems but in a fair way. If some actions of the Polish protesters do not correspond to the international obligations of Poland, then the priority should be given to the international obligations, because this is how the world is arranged,” he said.

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Hungary Says It Has Deal With Ukraine on Minority Rights, Ties It to EU Accession Talks

Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar announced that Hungary and Ukraine have reached a “comprehensive agreement” to broaden language, cultural, educational and political rights for roughly 100,000 ethnic Hungarians in Ukraine’s Zakarpattia region, following several weeks of expert-level talks. Kyiv has pledged to write the agreed measures into Ukrainian law, reflecting them in the EU accession action plan. Budapest indicated it would support opening the first negotiating cluster for Ukraine.

On Dec. 22, the new head of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Radoslav Sikorsky, came to Kyiv – a trip marking his first foreign visit in the new position.