Marcin Przydacz made the statement on Tuesday in Brussels, after a meeting of the alliance’s North Atlantic Council, Poland's PAP news agency reported.
He told the media that “some of our allies have been looking on with approval and have even asked how Poland was able to make the border so air-tight—why so few people were actually managing to cross into the country.”
“I mentioned the infrastructure, but also the determination and perseverance of Polish officers, including border guards, police officers and soldiers,” Przydacz said.
He told reporters he had briefed the North Atlantic Council, NATO’s main political decision-making body, on the state of play at the Polish-Belarusian border, amid the mounting migrant crisis.
According to Przydacz, all NATO members “absolutely understand” that the crisis is “a cynical ploy” by Belarus's strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko, supported by the authorities in Moscow, and a tactic “designed to destabilise the eastern frontiers of NATO and the European Union.”
Moreover, “the allies were unanimous” in seeing the situation as “a threat to the security of our alliance as a whole,” Przydacz said.
The meeting agreed that “a three-pronged response” was necessary, with allies working together both through bilateral channels and the NATO headquarters, he added.
Specifically, “we must step up pressure on Minsk, counter disinformation in the media, and work with our partners in North Africa and the Middle East to prevent Minsk from attracting more migrants to be sent across the Polish border,” Przydacz also said, as quoted by PAP.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP