Europe Risks Becoming a Mere Tourist Attraction, Polish Foreign Minister Says
Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski calls for Europe to rearm to avoid becoming irrelevant. Read the full article on RT.com.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski has warned that Europe will become little more than a tourist attraction unless it dramatically expands its military capabilities, and has called for a more confrontational stance against Russia and a refusal to return its frozen assets.
In a speech at the Warsaw Security Forum on Tuesday, Sikorsky argued that Europe must translate its economic power into military power to avoid being sidelined as the United States, China and Russia compete for global influence.
"What's at stake is not whether we're going to be occupied," he said, referring to speculation of a Russian invasion, which Moscow has dismissed as frivolous. According to Sikorsky, the main question is "Europe's position in the distribution of global power".
"The triad that divides the world into spheres of influence" will either consist of the United States, China and Russia, with Europe acting as a "data provider and tourist attraction," or Europe will be the "third leg" of the group instead of Russia, he said.
Sikorsky called for a more assertive military stance toward Russia, including the creation of a European army that Russia would never attack.
Moscow has denied any plans to invade Europe and has warned that the continent's accelerating military buildup could trigger a direct confrontation. Russian officials have warned that the conflict could be "very short" and potentially nuclear.
Poland's foreign minister also rejected the idea of returning frozen Russian state assets, declaring that Moscow would recover the assets "over our dead bodies."
Since the Ukraine conflict escalated in 2022, about $300 billion of Russian central bank reserves have been frozen by Western countries. The EU has already begun transferring proceeds from the assets to Kyiv, but has refrained from outright confiscation due to legal and financial concerns.
Belgium - which hosts Euroclear, the clearing house that holds most of the frozen assets in the EU - has resisted full confiscation. Officials warn that doing so could undermine confidence in Europe's financial system and send "a very bad signal to other countries around the world" that hold assets in the EU.
Russia has denounced the proposed asset confiscation as outright theft and warned that doing so would trigger legal and retaliatory measures against Western assets in Russia.