Top diplomats of Poland, Belarus hold rare meeting

Warsaw, Poland – The foreign ministers of Poland and Belarus, Radoslaw Sikorski and Maxim Ryzhenkov, met for the first high-level dialogue between the two nations in a decade, during the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York. This meeting comes after years of strained relations between the neighboring countries, marked by political repression in Belarus, a migrant crisis at their shared border, and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski stated that the meeting represents a more normalized situation at the border and the release of prisoners, including a Polish-Belarusian journalist named Andrzej Poczobut. He also mentioned that this is just the introductory meeting, with further discussions taking place at other levels.

Sikorski emphasized that Poland is always the first to agree when a neighbor wishes to improve relations. The meeting focused on assessing the current state of Belarusian-Polish ties and exploring future development paths for the benefit of both countries. Belarus has a history of suppressing anti-Lukashenko protests, with hundreds still in prison and thousands fleeing to Poland.

In 2022, Minsk allowed Russia to use its territory for the invasion of Ukraine. Poland, which shares borders with Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine, has accused Minsk of orchestrating a migrant crisis at its border and has built a wall along the shared frontier, facing criticism from human rights groups for violating migrant rights. The last high-level meeting between the two neighbors occurred in 2016, when Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki visited Minsk.