By: Syed Faisal Ali and Nuaman Ishfaq Mughal:
Islamabad: Poland remained the worst affected country after the war imposed by Russia on Ukraine. More than 18 million people had moved from Ukraine to other European countries and about 1 million to 1.5 million of those stayed in Poland as refugees. This was stated by Ambassador of Poland to Pakistan Maciej Pisarsk in an exclusive interview to mark a year since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Islamabad: Poland remained the worst affected country after the war imposed by Russia on Ukraine. More than 18 million people had moved from Ukraine to other European countries and about 1 million to 1.5 million of those stayed in Poland as refugees. This was stated by Ambassador of Poland to Pakistan Maciej Pisarsk in an exclusive interview to mark a year since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Ambassador Maciej Pisarski said Poland had provided multifaceted support to Ukraine as it was the main logistic hub for the distribution of economic and military equipment, including aid to refugees on humanitarian grounds. He went on to say that Poland spent approximately 1.5% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on support towards Ukraine. “Some experts estimated that 77% of the population of Poland was involved in different forms of helping the Ukrainian refugees,” he said.
The ambassador further said that Poland learned from the models of different countries in dealing with the refugee crisis. “We have studied the Pakistani experience in hosting refugees, but in being a borderline country in more general terms,” he said.
Commenting on tensions with Russia, the ambassador stated that Poland was not at war with Russia. “We don’t and we are not intending to be. We are just responding to the crisis. We wish the war had not happened. It wasn’t our choice. It wasn’t our decision. We just have to do everything possible so that the aggression is not successful,” he said.
When asked about cooperation between Pakistan and Poland, the ambassador said that Pakistan and Poland were witnessing positive developments in bilateral relations, especially in the sphere of trade and investment. “When it comes to investment, we are mostly talking about gas exploration and production in Pakistan.
We have Polish companies that have been involved in gas exploration and production projects for 25 years. One of our gas companies has successfully started gas production in Sindh province. We have so far spent $300 million dollars for gas production.”
On the question of Pakistan’s position on the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, ambassador Pisarski said that on the humanitarian front, Pakistan was supporting them in war.
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