German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday expressed support for Poland in the crisis that has developed on the Polish-Belarusian border as a result of the hybrid attack on Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko.
“We have one opinion on the nature of the crisis and how to resolve it,” Merkel said after talks with Polish Prime Minister Matthew Moravecki.
The Chancellor defended the decision to speak to Lukashenko, who has been reprimanded by Poland and other Eastern European countries.
She described Lukashenko as a focal point for the delivery of humanitarian aid to thousands of Middle Eastern migrants on the border with Poland in Belarus.
Poland can count on German “full solidarity”, Merkel assured.
If there is no progress in the crisis, other sanctions against Lukashenko will be considered, she said.
“We must be united among Europeans,” the chancellor said, insisting that the door to dialogue remain open.
Mr Moraveckis emphasized that Poland was also defending the European Union’s (EU) external border.
“We are also defending Germany from a large wave of refugees as Lukashenko tries to check the border,” he said.
Poland, with the support of Merkel and the president of the European Commission, Urzula von der Leien, has pushed through diplomatic means for countries in the Middle East to stop migrating flights to Belarus, Moraveckis said.
As part of a large-scale hybrid attack by the Lukashenko regime, attempts have been made in recent months to illegally send thousands of migrants from Belarus to Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, most of them arriving in Belarus as tourists from Iraq.
The EU has accused the Minsk regime of seeking to avenge support for the Belarusian opposition and of sanctions against Belarus in response to last year’s violent crackdown on protests.
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