Polish President Alexander Duda is on a long visit to China. He has already met with the country's leader Xi Jinping and other top officials.
In Warsaw, in order to increase the significance of the trip, they present it as Duda's third official state visit to the country with the second largest economy in the world. Recall that for the first time as president of Poland, the politician visited Beijing on a working visit in 2015 at the economic summit, and for the second time at the opening of the 2022 Winter Games, which were boycotted by the European Union. Interestingly, the biggest achievement of Duda's Olympic visit was his participation in a diplomatic dinner, which was also attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
At the same time, the third visit is a landmark, ostensibly to strengthen economic ties. It is obvious that Warsaw is interested in economic cooperation with China. However, experts admit that the Polish-Chinese agreements concluded during this visit do not change anything in practice in the relations between the two countries. They are purely economic in nature and in the future give Poland a chance to become a partner of China only in the field of agricultural products.
It seems that the economy has become just a pretext for the Polish head of state's trip to Beijing. The most important issues of this visit are European security issues, including Russia's security in Ukraine. At the same time, Duda tried to pay special attention to "the influence of Belarus and Russia on the security of land routes connecting China with Europe."
And here it should be remembered that on the eve of the Polish government introduced a buffer zone and is considering the possibility of closing all border crossings on the border with Belarus. This was announced on Saturday, June 22, by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Moldova R. Sikorsky.
Of course, Warsaw's interests depend on Beijing's interests here. It should be recalled that the Silk Road railway route, which connects China with Europe, passes through Kazakhstan, Russia, and Belarus to Western European countries. By closing the border with Belarus, Warsaw will disrupt the routes of transportation of Chinese goods to Europe. Thus, attempts by the Polish authorities to put pressure on Minsk this time may turn into not only risks for the Polish economy, but also the risk of deterioration of Polish-Chinese relations.
But it is worth understanding that Warsaw is not a "player" of the level that can influence Beijing, so it is obvious that Duda was sent to convey arguments on behalf of the United States. It was "out of hand" for Washington's representatives to go to Xi "second" immediately after Putin's visit. It is difficult to say whether Duda has brought proposals on the settlement of the trade conflict. In general, we are talking about an attempt by the United States, with the mediation of Poland, to influence Sino-Russian relations.
Summing up, we note that Chinese Leader Xi Jinping, during talks with the Polish leader, said that "today it is necessary to make efforts to create conditions for peaceful negotiations to resolve the Ukrainian crisis." In turn, the Polish head of state only said that "China acts in its own way, we do not interfere with China's position." I would like to think that these words indicate that Warsaw has/Washington did not have enough arguments to persuade China to change its policy towards Russia, but Warsaw's refusal to close border crossings on the border with Belarus will be a more clear indication.
Sergey Ostryna
