Poland considers stopping freight traffic through Belarus

Poland is considering stopping the transport of goods through Belarus if relations between the countries do not “normalize,” Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Szejna said in an interview with Radio Zet on July 22.

Warsaw has also long accused Belarus of deliberately pushing migrants into Poland since 2021 in order to put pressure on the EU over sanctions. Poland’s relations with its Russian ally Belarus have deteriorated further following the outbreak of the large-scale invasion of Ukraine.

“Poland is setting concrete conditions for Belarus if it wants to normalize relations, such as an end to hybrid attacks, the release of the murderer of a Polish soldier, the release of imprisoned Poles,” Szejna said.

The deputy minister said that if these conditions were not met, Poland could stop the transport of goods through Belarus, although this would be “an unfavorable decision” for the Polish government.

Poland is seriously considering this decision and Belarus is aware of it, he added.

Szejna also said that Belarus openly cooperates with Russia and is hostile towards Ukraine, which is why “Poland’s options for action against such a state are limited.”

One of the conditions for restoring relations with Belarus is the extradition of the migrant who killed a Polish border guard, Szejna said.

The security guard was stabbed to death with an improvised spear through the border fence between Poland and Belarus on May 28. The attack was reportedly carried out by a migrant attempting to cross the border illegally.

At the end of June, Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania called on the European Union to build a defensive line along the bloc’s border with Russia and Belarus to protect the EU from military threats and other damaging actions by Moscow.

The heads of state and government of the four countries, all of which share a border with Russia and three of them with Belarus, wrote a letter to Brussels detailing the scope and cost of the project.

Chinese military personnel arrive in Belarus for joint exercises

The aim of the exercises is to “exchange experiences, coordinate Belarusian and Chinese units and create a basis for the further development of Belarusian-Chinese relations in the field of joint troop training,” the Belarusian Defense Ministry said.