Sikorski noted a "slight thaw" in relations with Belarus

A slight thaw is being observed in relations between Poland and Belarus. Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said this in an interview with the newspaper Rzeczpospolita.

"We are observing a slight thaw, because Belarus has done what successive Polish governments have called for: they released Andrzej Poczobut — through US mediation — and even allowed him to return and then released him again", the foreign minister explained.

Sikorski also mentioned the calm on the Belarusian-Polish border and the recent absence of balloons carrying contraband. True, Sikorski added, this is not to Belarus's credit but rather the result of Poland having spent more than a billion euros on building a fence and border security operations.

"Some people in the country apparently think that Poland has certain eternal, unchanging friends and enemies; whereas the essence of foreign policy lies in persuading other subjects of international law to act in ways that better serve our interests. And if their policy changes, we can change ours too", the head of Polish diplomacy stressed.

He added that Poland has an interest in Belarus maintaining its statehood separately from Russia, since there is a difference between being a partner of the Russian Federation and being part of it. Over the past 30 years, according to Sikorski, the situation has been moving in the direction of Russia expanding its territory at Belarus's expense.

Last week, Sikorski met with his Belarusian counterpart Maksim Ryzhenkov on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. He described the meeting as introductory and compared it to a snowdrop.