It has been confirmed that Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will pay a visit to Warsaw on 11 September. According to his Polish counterpart, Radoslaw Sikorski, the talks will be very important but definitely tough.
Michał Kubicki reports
The plans for a visit by the Russian Foreign Minister had been announced several months ago but after Poland took a firm line on Russia on the Georgia crisis some analysts feared the visit would be postponed or cancelled. Eventually, the visit will be only slightly shorter than originally scheduled but it will take place. According to Russian agency reports, the discussions with Polish politicians will forcus on the US anti-missile defense system, a part of which is to be located on Polish territory, and Russia’s relations with the European Union. Mr Lavrov is also expected to present Moscow’s position on the conflict with Georgia.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski expects a tough exchange of views: ‘We all know how dynamic the relations between Russia and the European Union are. This is going to be the first visit by the Russian foreign minister to a Western country after the outbreak of the conflict. These are going to be important and tough talks’.
According to Marcin Sobczyk, Warsaw Bureau chief of Interfax Central Europe, the continuation of the dialogue with Poland is in Moscow’s interest: ‘It seems that Moscow is not willing to burn the bridges it tried to build over the past less than a year since the Tusk administration took over. The Russian government is trying to continue the dialogue with the administration despite all the problems with the missile shield and despite Poland’s very highly critical stance on Russia’s activities in the East.’
While in Warsaw, the Russian Foreign Minister will hold talks with his Polish counterpart Sikorski. He will also meet the Polish Prime Minister. It has also been hinted by the presidential chancellery said a meeting with President Kaczynski can be included in the programme.
Now that the Polish-US agreement on hosting the missile shield is in place and Poland is among EU’s toughest critics of Moscow’s intervention in Georgia, Polish-Russian relations are at their lowest.
Marcin Sobczyk expects they would remain strained for years, for a number of reasons: ‘Those reasons are about the place of Poland and the place of Russia on the international stage, their ability to influence international events, economic influence and political influence in Eastern Europe as both countries aspire to play the leading role in Ukraine, Georgia and other places that Russia considers its territory. As long as those factors are at play there are no reasons for either side to actually try to start some kind of a friendship.’
In an interview with the Rzeczpospolita daily, president Lech Kaczynski denied opinions suggesting that Poland is an anti-Russian country. ‘Poland belongs to a group of countries having realistic views on Russia’, he said, adding that the events in Georgia are detrimental to Polish interests, notably those related to Warsaw’s plans to diversify its energy sources.