The cross : Poland is among the most generous contributors to the pro-Ukrainian coalition. In your opinion, is Western aid to Ukraine sufficient?
Radoslaw Sikorski : No. Ukraine desperately needs munitions, air and missile defense systems to protect its cities against Russian war crimes against civilian infrastructure, and combat aircraft.
How do you explain this restraint?
R.S. : There is always reluctance in the West. When we told our Western allies not to build the Nord Stream gas pipelines, they were reluctant to listen to us. Same thing when we told them that we had to spend 2% of our gross domestic product (GDP) on defence.
We are today on the front line, the only NATO and EU country to share a border with the two countries at war, Russia and Ukraine, because unfortunately, when we begged our partners to help deter Putin, they weren’t as forceful as they could be.
Putin made the choice to try to recreate the Russian Empire. We cannot allow it to succeed. Otherwise, we will all live in a new era of confrontation. In the West, you think you have time because if things go wrong, Poland will be the next victim of Russian aggression and you will have time to react. We don’t have that luxury.
The Polish government plans to dedicate 4% of GDP to military expenditure and to increase the number of army personnel to 300,000 men. As a member of the opposition, do you support this effort?
R.S. : I support this goal, but it is not fair to Poland from our Western allies. Because if Poland spends 4% of its GDP on military spending and countries richer than us spend less than 2%, that means Poland is defending them at its expense. The burden must be better shared within NATO as well as in the European Union. Our contribution to the EU budget is proportional to our GDP. This is why I am a big supporter of European defence, for which we must be more ambitious. France has been advocating it for a long time, and together we must persuade the Germans to do more.
Does the war in Ukraine give Poland a chance to make its voice better heard within NATO and the EU?
R.S. : Within NATO, we already play an important role as the main gateway for military support to Ukraine. But inside the EU, Poland is not fully exploiting the moment because of the conflicts maintained by our government with Brussels and with Berlin. The best thing to do would be to stop violating the rule of law and being subject to sanctions for violating EU treaties. The government is paying €1 million a day in penalties for failing to comply with judgments from the European Court of Justice, and Brussels is denying us the recovery program funds we desperately need.
All of this gives the impression that democracy is less rooted in Eastern Europe and risks creating a bias against EU enlargement to Ukraine. A Poland with influence in Brussels would have the ability to do more to speed up Ukraine’s accession negotiations. Likewise, unnecessary wrangling with Germany over the issue of reparations damages our credibility among the allies.
France and Germany still seem to think that Putin’s Russia could be part of a European security architecture. What do you think ?
R.S. : Who can still believe in the value of Putin’s word and his signature at the bottom of a treaty, he who violated the 1997 Russian-Ukrainian friendship treaty in which the two countries pledged to respect the territorial integrity and the inviolability of their borders? He who violated the Budapest Memorandum, signed on December 5, 1994, between Ukraine, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States, then by China and France, which gave security guarantees to the Ukraine, in exchange for giving up its nuclear arsenal.
Putin is trying to do in Ukraine what Hitler did in the late 1930s under the guise of protecting his compatriots in Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland. Putin shows no sign of wanting a compromise. He thinks he can win because some in the West would like this war to end in a draw. However, a draw would mean that Putin benefits from his aggression. There will always be Chamberlains or Daladiers willing to trade other people’s land for their own peace of mind. Believe me, when Putin wants to make peace, he will find Macron’s phone number.
You don’t trust Paris and Berlin in a possible negotiation with Moscow?
R.S. : I respect the strategic situation of France. But certainly the Minsk process was a mistake. Two countries – France and Germany – have acted in violation of the Lisbon Treaty, which obliges member states to adopt a common foreign policy. Two self-appointed member states ignored countries like Poland which had the most interest in this matter, as a neighbor of Ukraine and Russia. So, yes, we still resent two decades of patronizing talk. If some countries think that because they are richer they are always right, this is not the case. This we no longer accept.
So Poland and the other Eastern European countries will have to be involved in the talks?
R.S. : Let’s start by taking Article 25 of the Lisbon Treaty seriously. The Member States will formulate a policy within the framework of the European Foreign Affairs Council which will be implemented by the High Representative or the President of the European Council and each country will support it loyally, instead of acting alone on its own.