Belarus’ foreign minister Maxim Ryzhenkov (left) and Poland’s foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski (right) pose for a photo during their meeting on the sidelines of the 81st UN General Assembly in New York. (AFP pic)
WARSAW: The top diplomats of EU member Poland and Russian-allied Belarus met on the margins of the UN General Assembly in the first high-level meeting between the neighbours in a decade, with Warsaw saying Wednesday it saw potential for warming ties.
Minsk-Warsaw relations have been essentially frozen for years – over political repression in Belarus, a migrant crisis at the border and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Tensions have run high for years between Nato member Poland and reclusive Belarus, ruled by president Alexander Lukashenko since 1994.
Polish foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski told Warsaw’s TVP TV station he met his Belarusian counterpart Maxim Ryzhenkov on the UN’s “neutral territory”.
“We have, more than in the past, a normalised situation on the border,” he said.
“We also have the liberations of prisoners, including Andrzej Poczobut,” Sikorski added, referring to a Polish-Belarusian journalist freed by Minsk this year.
“So the neighbours have more reasons to try to stabilise their relations,” he said.
The ministers met as US president Donald Trump’s administration has re-opened a dialogue with Minsk, easing some sanctions in exchange for prisoner releases.
“This is the first, introductory meeting, but meetings are also taking place at other levels,” Sikorski said.
“We will soon be opening a new embassy building in Minsk. When a neighbour wishes to thaw and improve relations, Poland is always first to agree,” he said.
Quoted by state news agency Belta, Minsk’s foreign ministry said the meeting “focused on assessing the state of Belarusian-Polish ties and paths for their further development in the interests of the peoples of both countries”.
Belarus suppressed mass anti-Lukashenko protests in 2020, with hundreds still in prison and thousands driven into exile, mostly to Poland.
In 2022, Minsk allowed Moscow to use its territory to invade Ukraine.
Poland – which borders Belarus, Russia and Ukraine – has also accused Minsk of orchestrating a migrant crisis at its border.
Warsaw has built a wall along the border and human rights groups accuse it of violating the rights of migrants through systemic “pushbacks”.
The last time there was a high-level meeting between the neighbours was in 2016, when then Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki visited Minsk.