|
Poland Other Former Soviet Republics
From the outset, Foreign Minister Skubiszewski pursued
a
dual-track policy toward Poland's eastern neighbors,
Russia,
Belarus, Lithuania, and Ukraine. This approach enabled
Warsaw to
negotiate for Polish interests with the central political
authority that remained in Moscow as the Soviet Union
dissolved,
while simultaneously developing bilateral ties with the
individual republics that would emerge from that process
as
independent neighbors. The failure of the August coup
signaled to
Warsaw the end of the highly centralized Soviet state and
the
feasibility of officially recognizing independence-minded
republics. Accordingly, immediately after the coup Poland
became
the first East European country to extend diplomatic
recognition
to the Baltic republics of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.
On the
day following the formal dissolution of the Soviet Union,
Poland
announced that it was prepared to open normal diplomatic
relations with all the members of the Commonwealth of
Independent
States
(CIS--see Glossary).
Although it supported national self-determination,
Warsaw
feared that the breakup of the Soviet Union might bring
regional
instability, armed conflict fueled by rival territorial
claims,
and perhaps millions of displaced persons crossing into
Poland.
Still struggling with its own economic and political
transition,
Poland could not have borne the burden of resettling huge
numbers
of refugees. These concerns moved President Walesa to
declare his
support for Gorbachev's last-ditch effort in December 1991
to
reconstitute the Soviet Union as a loose confederation.
Then,
after the formal demise of the Soviet Union, Walesa called
for
massive Western aid for the newly created CIS to avoid
what he
called a "mass exodus of hungry refugees."
Data as of October 1992
|
