A. Rubio
Poland will start receiving gas from Norway in the next few days, thanks to the completion of the section of the ‘Baltic Pipe’ project that reaches Pogorzelica, on the northern Polish coast, according to Ambassador Anna Sroka in a recent meeting with Spanish journalists. The pipeline will also supply Denmark and is expected to deliver 10 million cubic metres of gas to both countries.
“The Norwegian gas will give us much greater security in our energy supply,” said Sroka, adding that this will allow Poland to dissociate itself from the Russian supply and its political pressure, since the contract signed by the Warsaw authorities with Gazprom ends in December.
The ambassador also confirmed her government’s interest to start developing nuclear power as part of its goal of securing its energy supply. However, she added that these projects need time, but insisted that they are fundamental to achieving the energy diversification that is essential for the whole of the European Union.
He said Poland would double the number of its troops in the coming years and increase its defence spending to three per cent, from the current two per cent. “The current circumstances show that we have to invest more in defence”, said the ambassador, for whom “it is essential to stop Putin in Ukraine, otherwise there will be other wars”.
Warsaw, along with the Baltic and other Central European countries, has always regretted that its warnings about Russia have fallen on deaf ears among its allies, both in NATO and the EU. “Now we feel more listened to,” she says. This is why Poland insists that it will not abandon Ukraine and looks incredulously on when it is mentioned that a change of power in Moscow could democratise the country: “Russian society has to change,” said Sroka.
