Federal Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle issued the following statement today (18 April) on the margins of the funeral service in Krakow:

”At this difficult time, we stand by our Polish neighbours and friends.

We want to develop a partnership with our eastern neighbour Poland that is as close and amicable as the one we have been able to establish in recent decades with our western neighbour France.“

Along with Federal President Horst Köhler and Minister of State Cornelia Pieper, Coordinator of German-Polish Intersocietal and Cross-Border Cooperation, Federal Minister Westerwelle attended the official funeral service for the President of the Republic of Poland, Lech Aleksander Kaczyński, and his wife Maria Kaczyńska.