Warsaw and Moscow should keep diplomatic ties: Polish FM
PR dla Zagranicy
Victoria Bieniek
26.01.2018 14:00
Warsaw should maintain diplomatic ties with Moscow despite "serious differences of opinion" over a number of issues which include the wreck of the plane which killed Poland's president in Smolensk, western Russia in 2010, Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz told the wnet radio station.
Kremlin. Photo: Wikimedia Commons/alexandergusev.com (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Poland and Russia are in a dispute over the Polish plane which crashed in Smolensk, western Russia, in 2010, killing the then president and 95 others, the wreck of which is yet to be returned to Poland.
Czaputowicz said that the wreck should be handed over to Poland "without delay".
Meanwhile, Polish officials continue to investigate the crash, having challenged earlier Polish and Russian reports.
Czaputowicz said that Poland and Russia also failed to see eye to eye over Russian gas monopoly Gazprom's planned Nord Stream 2 pipeline to connect Russia and Germany via the Baltic Sea, which has been vocally opposed by Warsaw.
Moscow's annexation of Crimea, which prompted European Union sanctions against Russia, is also straining ties.
As regards Ukraine, Czaputowicz said ties with Poland were strategic and should be good in the long term, because the countries have common interests.
However, Poland and Ukraine disagree over interpretations of history, Czaputowicz added.
A team of Polish researchers searching for the remains of Polish victims of wartime crimes in Ukraine was blocked last year, while at least one Ukrainian official was refused entry to Poland for holding “anti-Polish sentiment”.
Czaputowicz said he hoped the Ukrainian and Polish ministers would meet and resolve disputes over history. (vb/pk)
Source: wPolityce.pl