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Generating ideas and impetus for Europe: Foreign Minister Baerbock at the Weimar Triangle meeting
Foreign Ministers Annalena Baerbock, Stéphane Séjourné (France) and Radosław Sikorski (Poland) at their press conference, © photothek
France, Germany and Poland have worked together for more than 30 years in the Weimar Triangle format. Foreign Minister Baerbock is today travelling to a meeting in France with her French and Polish counterparts.
Just outside Paris, in the town of La Celle-Saint-Cloud, French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné is today hosting a meeting of the Weimar Triangle. It is the first meeting at Foreign Minister level since he and his Polish counterpart Radosław Sikorski took office. Together with Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, they aim to breathe new life into the Weimar Triangle as a forum for close dialogue with one another.
Foreign Minister Baerbock issued the following statement today (12 February) before leaving for La Celle-Saint-Cloud:
Europe’s cohesion is our life insurance; particularly at a time when Russia is taking aim at Europe’s peaceful order, crises are creating uncertainty around the world and Europe’s fundamental values are threatened by anti-democratic sentiment.
Today more than ever in its 30-year history, the Weimar Triangle can provide impetus and develop ideas for a strong, resilient Europe in turbulent times. Because our strength lies precisely in the fact that the people of France, Poland and Germany have different perspectives on our common Europe. And the people of Europe are right to expect us to use this to generate momentum.
A busy agenda including support for Ukraine as well as security and defence cooperation
Today, just a few days before the second anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, security and defence policy in Europe will dominate the agenda. Poland, Germany and France stand by Ukraine’s side in its fight to defend itself. We are united in solidarity with the Ukrainian people. Supporting them – in financial, military, humanitarian and political terms – remains an utmost priority for the German Government.
Today’s discussions will also focus on the next steps for the EU’s enlargement policy. The countries of the Western Balkans, as well as others, have been seeking to join the EU for many years. Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine is a forceful reminder to Europe of how much it and its partners in values need one another. The fact that upcoming enlargements of the EU will also entail internal reform represents an important challenge. We in the German Government want to drive progress on both of these issues together within the EU.
There’s lots to do, so let’s get to work: we are working on how we can jointly provide even better support to Ukraine, because this strengthens our collective security. We are further developing the European project, so that it can weather storms and remain capable of action when it has 30 members or more. We are intensifying exchange and cohesion among our citizens. Because in Paris, Warsaw and Berlin, we share a deep conviction that European answers are better answers.
- Statement by Foreign Minister Baerbock prior to her departure for the Weimar Triangle meeting
A forum with a long history and plenty of future
On 28 August 1991, the Foreign Ministers of Germany, France and Poland – Hans-Dietrich Genscher, Roland Dumas and Krzysztof Skubiszewski – met in Weimar on Goethe’s birthday to set up the Weimar Triangle. Their aim was to identify shared fundamental interests regarding Europe’s future and to extend cross-border cooperation following the fall of the Iron Curtain. Over three decades after it was established, this trilateral discussion and cooperation format is today more important than ever when it comes to injecting fresh impetus into political and civil-society dialogue and thereby making Europe more united and capable of action. The Weimar Triangle symbolises how Europe’s future can be jointly shaped at many different levels and across borders.
