Name: Poland's Deputy Prime Minister: If Putin succeeds in conquering Ukraine, we will be next | DW News
Uploaded: 2026-02-14T17:12:31.000Z
Duration: 7 min 13 s
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Adverbs of degree

Poland is one of those European countries that benefited a lot from the very close transatlantic relationship post World War II.

Adverbs of manner

So one of the people listening very carefully to Marco Rubio's speech in Munich was, of course, the Polish Foreign Minister, Radoszaw Sikorski.

What did you make of Marco Rubio's speech?

Well, the return of American politeness was welcome.

He's right that our interests don't always coincide, but they do overlap.

And some of his message I personally agreed with.

And on other things, like climate, I suspect we will agree to differ.

What was somewhat disappointing was the absence of what we Europeans regard as the most urgent security threat to our continent, which is the Russian aggression against Ukraine.

Ukraine was not mentioned in Marco Rubio's speech.

I can't answer for the United States, but

for us, at least in Poland, we think that if Putin succeeded in conquering Ukraine, we would be next and that the cost of deterring him on the Polish border, including for Germany, would be much higher.

So we are paying for Ukraine's sustenance, both as a state and as a in the defensive war.

I personally believe that gives us the right to have a voice in these negotiations.

Of course, we wish luck to the United States, but

it has to be a fair peace that respects Ukraine's red lines and respects the security of Europe.

You said that Marco Rubio proposed a new deal.

What kind of a deal did Marco Rubio propose to the Europeans?

Well, greater emphasis on the management of migration.

Here in Poland, we actually agree with him.

They haven't yet completed their big and beautiful fence.

We have, at the cost of almost a billion euros, built a fence on our border with Belarus, which protects all of Europe from forced migration.

We believe that numbers matter and that as nation states or groups of nation states, we have the right to control who may legally live on our side of the border and who may not.

So on this we agree, but we feel that we've done more than them on migration.

You may agree, but you already mentioned climate.

Marco Rubio spoke of a climate cult that essentially deterred or distracted Europeans from focusing on the right things.

How much of an impact is that going to have that the White House and Marco Rubio say no more investment in climate protection?

Well, in Europe, we feel responsible for the planet.

And we also think that transition, at least partial to renewables, lower in the medium term, will lower energy prices.

So, you know, China doesn't just open coal plant.

It also has the biggest number of photovoltaic farms and, and windmills.

So I don't, you know, contrary to what was suggested, these are complementary efforts.

But when you look at Marco Rubio's message to the Europeans, he also said, you know, we can go it alone, but

How sobering is that for a country like Poland that has benefited a from a very close transatlantic relationship?

Well, in hard security terms, he's right.

The United States has two big, beautiful oceans between them and their potential enemies.

So the perception of threat is different.

The United States convened a conference on critical minerals at the State Department under the leadership of Marco Rubio and Vice President Vance.

The US identifying a common threat and convening allies to deal with it.

You can only be a leader if you have some followers.

And when they do the right thing, of course, we should support them.

Now, how much of a risk is it that the tone was more conciliatory than, of course, J.D.

vance, who caused an outcry last year here in Munich.

How much of a risk is it that it could lull some European countries into a false sense of security, Countries that currently don't invest the same amount as, for example, Poland does in defense and security?

Well, I think we all got an awakening and the US was right on some issues.

Western Europe was consuming the peace dividend for too long and credit where credit is due.

President Trump, in his inimitable style, told us that we need to get our act together, and

As Europeans, we are now spending double of what we were spending before he became president.

You've even changed your constitution to start spending more on defence.

So that style partially works, but you can overdo.

And when you're that much more powerful, I think it's better to be polite and then you can have a conversation and then you can prepare for a new era in which NATO, in which Europeans will take responsibility for, for territorial defence.

In Europe, we are rich enough to do it with some American help and we are negotiating the proportions.

it's just a fact that the closer you are to Russia, the more you invest in your security and defense and the further away you are.

It tells you a great deal about the nature of the Russian regime.

The real threat to Europe is Russia's state ideology, an ideology of autocracy and of expansion, of rebuilding the empire.

And that would necessarily happen at our expense, and we must not permit that.

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Poland's Deputy Prime Minister: If Putin succeeds in conquering Ukraine, we will be next | DW News

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