All news

Poland sees no immediate military threat on border with Belarus, says president

Andrzej Duda pointed to a "dangerous evolution of the situation" on the Polish-Belarusian border, stressing that there were no signs that the situation was de-escalating

BRUSSELS, November 25. /TASS/. Polish authorities don’t see an immediate military threat on the border with Belarus and see no reason for invoking Article 4 of NATO, President Andrzej Duda told a joint news conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday.

"Of course, together with Mr. Secretary General and our NATO allies, we are thinking about the possibility of using Article 4, but we want to use it only then when the situation is adequate to Article 4 being invoked," the Polish leader said. Currently, the situation does not fall within Article 4, he explained. "Today, we don’t have a direct military threat, today we are not seeing any military attack on any of the neighboring states," the Polish leader said.

"We bear in mind Article 4, we are at the stage of consultations. But we believe that there are no reasons now to use Article 4," Duda stated.

However, he pointed to a "dangerous evolution of the situation" on the Polish-Belarusian border, stressing that there were no signs that the situation was de-escalating on the border, and that this situation could "continue for months". The president said that over 750 attempts to illegally cross the border into Poland were reported in the past three days.

Under Article 4, "the Parties will consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the Parties is threatened".