Jakub Bornio
On February 2, at the Oslo Security Conference, Deputy Prime Minister of Poland Radosław Sikorski stated that Poland wants to deepen strategic cooperation with Northern Europe. Sikorski discussed challenges that Northern Europe and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) are facing amid Russia’s war against Ukraine (Government of Poland, February 2). This is just one of the recent steps Poland has taken in its engagement with Northern Europe.
Poland has not historically focused its foreign relations to the north despite its access to the Baltic Sea and its extensive coastline. Polish engagement with the Baltic and Nordic countries has been limited and has clearly ranked below other strategic directions, including eastern policy, Atlantic policy, and regional policy concentrated on Central and Eastern Europe (Nowak-Jeziorański, 2013; Kowal; Juchnowski, 2018). Marginalization of the northern/Baltic dimension was historically and culturally conditioned. For centuries, a land-based culture dominated Poland, and the Polish nobility despised maritime affairs, navigation, and merchants (Tazbir, 1977).
No comments:
Post a Comment