Italy, Poland ties excellent, positions aligned says Meloni

(Adnkronos) – Italy and Poland enjoy excellent bilateral relations and share positions on the key issues facing Europe, above all over Russia's 497-day-old invasion of Ukraine, premier Giorgia Meloni said during a visit to Warsaw on Wednesday. "Poland is the only European country that I have visited twice since taking office (last October)," Meloni told reporters at a joint press conference with Poland's premier Mateusz Morawiecki.  "I think in itself that is enough to indicate the calibre, value and depth of our bilateral relations," Meloni underlined. "It can easily be seen that we have a shared stance on almost all the issues that we face at European leader level," she went on. At the current "time of crisis", Europe needs to rise to the historic challenges before it, first and foremost, Ukraine, "on which Italy and Poland's positions are essentially the same," Meloni stated. "We stand shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine and in defence of the liberty of a people which is astounding the world by its defence of that freedom, sovereignty and territorial integrity from an unacceptable aggression which we must do our utmost to stop." European nations including Italy and Poland will give all-round support to Ukraine for as long as necessary, Meloni vowed. Meloni and Morawiecki agreed that at the Nato summit in Vilnius next week, the Alliance must give Ukraine "real" security guarantees, she said. "This is necessary because offering Ukraine real security guarantees is crucial to a just, lasting peace in the future," Meloni said. Europe must be able to weigh and to respond "effectively" to the fall-out from the Russia-Ukraine conflict, however, Meloni warned. "First with the (Coronavirus) pandemic and then with the war, Europe woke up and realised that it had lost control of many of its key supply chains…needed to ensure its independence, autonomy and mastery of its own destiny," she noted.     —internazionale/akiengwebinfo@adnkronos.com (Web Info)