Marek Kuchciński, Speaker of the lower house of Poland’s parliament, made the statement while talking to reporters at an administrative boundary line between Georgia and its breakaway region of South Ossetia, which has been controlled by Russian forces for more than 10 years.
Kuchciński said he and a delegation of Polish officials came to the area to express solidarity with Georgia amid its demands that Russia return the disputed region.
"We believe that Russia should withdraw from this area,” Kuchciński said.
Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Ukraine in August called on Russia to "reverse its illegal recognition of the so-called independence" of the Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
The foreign ministers of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia and the deputy prime minister of Ukraine visited Georgia at the time to mark 10 years since Russia’s invasion of that country.
Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz last month talked with Georgian Foreign Minister David Zalkaliani in Warsaw in a meeting described as proof of friendship between the two countries.
According to the Polish foreign ministry, the pair discussed Poland’s support for Georgia as it aspires to join the European Union and NATO.
The lower house of Polish parliament on October 23 adopted a resolution saying that Russia's invasion of Georgia in 2008 was the first military aggression by a neighbouring country against a sovereign state in Europe’s post-war history.
Honouring late Polish leader
During his two-day visit to Georgia on Monday and Tuesday, Poland’s Kuchciński signed a parliamentary agreement with Georgia and took part in the opening of Polish cultural institutions in Tbilisi, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
He also laid flowers at a memorial in the Georgian capital honouring late Polish President Lech Kaczyński.
Lech Kaczyński in August 2008 travelled to Tbilisi together with the presidents of Ukraine, Lithuania and Estonia to show solidarity with Georgia in the face of Russia's invasion of that country, according to accounts by officials.
He said at the time, as quoted by Poland's niezalezna.pl website: “Today Georgia, tomorrow Ukraine, the day after tomorrow the Baltic states, and then, perhaps, the time will come for my country, Poland."
Lech Kaczyński died on April 10, 2010, when a Polish plane carrying him, his wife, and 94 others, mainly political and military top brass, crashed while trying to land at the Smolensk airfield in western Russia. All aboard were killed.
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Source: IAR