Poland’s head of diplomacy Zbigniew Rau said he “hopes that the new German government will be ready to take on this responsibility, including in the form of negotiations on compensation.”
During a joint press conference with Annalena Berbock, Germany’s new foreign minister, Rau mentioned the “return of cultural property plundered by Germany” and proposed a “compensation system for Polish cultural monuments” destroyed by the Nazi regime.
In response to this challenge, Berbock assured his Polish counterpart that the friendship between the two countries “within the European Union is something invaluable,” although “this is not obvious” given Poland’s “disproportionate losses during the war and occupation.”
According to Germany, in 1953 Poland renounced East Germany’s war reparations, and the issue was finally resolved by the signing in 1990 of a treaty between the two German states (western and eastern) and four victor countries. Conflict: USA, USSR, United Kingdom and France.
However, the Polish government is now challenging the 1953 communist-era agreement and, fearing a complex legal debate, prefers to insist on the “moral duty” of the Germans.
“I hope we find solutions that will strengthen Europe. (…) Our historic task is to foster peace and friendship openly and sincerely, ”said Berbock, who laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the Polish capital.
The Polish Foreign Minister reiterated his country’s rejection of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which will transport gas from Russia to Germany, stressing that “he will not fail to demand the closure of this project, which is damaging to Europe.”
During the meeting, the two ministers also raised the issue of the rule of law in Poland, and Berbock acknowledged “great disagreements” on this issue.
The German minister also assured that Germany will support Poland and the Baltic countries in the crisis on the border with Belarus, and stressed the need to help migrants who have become “victims of the cynical game” of the Minsk regime.
