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Poland marks 100 years since regaining access to sea

11.02.2020 00:10
Officials in Poland have marked 100 years since their country regained access to the sea, not long after recovering sovereignty.
President Andrzej Duda speaks during a visit to Polands Baltic coast on Monday.
President Andrzej Duda speaks during a visit to Poland's Baltic coast on Monday.Photo: PAP/Marcin Gadomski

During a visit to coastal areas in the north of the country, President Andrzej Duda said on Monday that a newly independent Poland secured new development opportunities when it regained access to the Baltic Sea a century ago.

He praised one of the country’s erstwhile military leaders, Gen. Józef Haller, who he said symbolically "wedded" the newly independent nation to the sea on February 10, 1920.

Duda also said that regaining access to the Baltic was one of the most important events in Poland’s modern history.

Poland secured a 140-kilometre-long stretch of land on the Baltic coast and an outlet to the sea at the expense of Germany under the June 28, 1919 Treaty of Versailles.

Poland recovered independence on November 11, 1918, the day World War I ended, after 123 years of foreign rule.

(gs/pk)

Source: TVP, PAP, IAR