At a joint news conference in Warsaw on Thursday, Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kamiński said his country and Germany were "fighting together to ensure that Poland's eastern border is stable and safe, that it serves the interests of the European Union and protects the sovereignty of our country."
He added that Poland would not allow the creation of an illegal migrant route from Eastern Europe, "which is being set up cynically, for political reasons, to destabilise not just Poland and Lithuania, but the whole European Union."
Kamiński told reporters that in the face of the migrant crisis, "Poland and Germany will be coordinating every move."
He said he remained in "very frequent contact" with his visiting German counterpart Horst Seehofer, while Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki consulted with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and both presidents were also regularly communicating.
German support
Germany's Seehofer said that his country "stands with Poland" amid the "political and migration crisis" engineered "perfidiously" by the regime of Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko and "likely also supported by Russia."
Seehofer thanked Poland for defending its border in a "considered way," which he said "also serves the interests of the European Union and Germany."
He added that both countries wanted migrants to receive humanitarian assistance and then "be repatriated to their countries of origin."
Migrant crisis
The migrant crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border has escalated in recent days, with Poland, the European Union and its member states, as well as NATO and the United States accusing Alexander Lukashenko, the autocratic leader of Belarus, of orchestrating the standoff in retaliation for Western sanctions against his regime.
EU foreign ministers on Monday gave the green light for a widening of the sanctions in response to Minsk's actions.
Lukashenko has denied luring vulnerable people, including Kurds from the Middle East, with the false promise of easy access to the EU and sending them across the bloc's border.
Tensions at Polish-Belarusian border
Poland's Border Guard said on Friday it had recorded 255 illegal attempts to cross from Belarus over the past 24 hours. Since the start of the year, almost 34,000 such attempts have been recorded, including 5,500 this month alone, the agency's data showed.
On Tuesday, the border standoff turned violent as migrants pelted Polish forces with rocks and stun grenades near the checkpoint in Kuźnica, officials told reporters.
Since September 2, Warsaw has kept the border zone under a state of emergency in the face of the migrant pressure.
Poland plans to build a solid fence along the Belarus frontier, crowned with barbed wire and fitted with electronic surveillance devices. The protective wall is due to be ready by mid-2022.
EU, NATO, US, UN nations condemn Belarus
The United States has called on Russia to use its influence over Belarus "to cease its callous exploitation and coercion of vulnerable people," White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said this week amid the deepening migrant crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border.
US State Secretary Antony Blinken last week reaffirmed America's support for Poland amid the crisis on the EU member's border with Belarus.
The United States and European members of the UN Security Council last week condemned Belarus for the “orchestrated instrumentalization" of migrants as tensions rose along the Polish-Belarusian border.
The Polish prime minister has said that NATO must take steps to help resolve the crisis on the Belarus border, adding that Poland and the Baltic states of Lithuania and Latvia may ask for consultations under Article 4 of the alliance's treaty.
Poland's envoy to the United Nations, Krzysztof Szczerski, has warned that the international community needs to act before the deepening migrant crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border spins out of control, undermining the security and stability of the region.
Polish lawmakers on Wednesday passed legislation to strengthen the country's frontiers amid simmering tensions on the border with Belarus.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP, TVP Info