Poland plans to become an energy hub in Central and Eastern Europe, Polish President Andrzej Duda said on a state visit to Australia and New Zealand, PAP informs.

Andrzej Duda highlighted that Poland is currently working on diversifying its sources of supply, and its energy sector “is going through a period of intense change”. Even though Poland relies heavily on coal as a core for its energy security, it has begun importing large quantities of liquefied natural gas through the terminal in Swinoujscie, in Northwestern Poland, and has also begun to build a gas pipeline, called Baltic Pipe, in order to import Norway’s natural gas, said Andrzej Duda, quoted by Agerpres.

“We want to become an energy hub in Central and Eastern Europe as part of the Three Seas Initiative”, Duda underlined at the opening of an energy forum in Sydney.

The Initiative of the Three Seas (3SI), launched in 2015, seeks to stimulate cooperation between the twelve EU Member States of the Baltic Sea, the Adriatic Sea and the Black Sea. These are Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria.

Andrzej Duda’s visit to Australia and New Zealand is the first official visit of a Polish president to the two states since the fall of communism in 1989.