Foreign relations of Poland
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Poland became a full member of NATO in March 1999, and of the European Union in May 2004. Poland promoted its NATO candidacy through energetic participation in the Partnership for Peace (PfP) program and through intensified individual dialogue between Poland and NATO. Poland was invited in the first wave of NATO enlargement at the July 1997 NATO Summit in Madrid.
Poland also has forged ahead on its economic reintegration with the West. Poland became an associate member of the European Union (EU) and its defensive arm, the Western European Union (WEU) in 1994. In 1996 Poland achieved full OECD membership and submitted preliminary documentation for full EU membership. Poland joined the European Union in 2004, along with the other members of the Visegrád group.
Changes since 1989 have redrawn the map of central Europe, and Poland has had to forge relationships with seven new neighbours. Poland has actively pursued good relations with all its neighbours, signing friendship treaties replacing links severed by the collapse of the Warsaw Pact. The Poles have forged special relationships with Lithuania and particularly Ukraine in an effort to firmly anchor these states to the West.
Due to its tragic historical experience with a repeating pattern of disloyal allies and simultaneous aggression of powerful neighbours (Partitions of Poland, Second World War), Polish foreign policy pursues a close cooperation with a strong partner, apt to give a real military support in a critical situation. This creates the background of Poland's tight relations with the USA and over-sensitivity complicating relations towards its main partner within the European Union, Germany. At the same time, the equally burdened attitude towards Russia results in very tense diplomatic relations, constantly worsening since Vladimir Putin's rise to power. This is an important factor for the special attention Poland pays to the political emancipation of all its Eastern neighbours: Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine (as well as certain of those countries do to Poland itself). The authoritarian and anti-Western political course of Belarus presents a huge problem for the Polish foreign policy; the Orange Revolution in Ukraine evoked a wide and authentic support within the Polish society.
Poland is a part of the multinational force in Iraq.
Denmark and Poland have still not agreed on the location of the maritime border between the two countries. Denmark supports a border half-way between the two countries; Poland wants to be awarded an even greater share of the Baltic Sea, since Poland has a much longer coast-line than the Danish island of Bornholm. The issue has gained importance with Russia's plans to build the controversial Nord Stream natural gas pipeline through the disputed area.
[edit] See also
- Diplomatic missions of Poland
- List of diplomatic missions in Poland
- Polish involvement in the 2003 invasion of Iraq
[edit] Further reading
- Fedorowicz, Krzysztof (July 2007). "National Identity and National Interest in Polish Eastern Policy, 1989-2004". Nationalities Papers 35 (3): 537-553.
[edit] References
- This article contains material from the CIA World Factbook which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain.
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