The Vistula Spit canal, which will enable Poland to bypass Russian waters out of the Vistula Lagoon and into the Baltic Sea, will open on Saturday. It will significantly shorten the sailing times from the lagoon to Gdańsk and beyond. The construction of the canal had been opposed by the liberals who were happy enough for Poland to use Russian waters.
According to former Polish foreign affairs minister, Witold Waszczykowski, currently a ruling Law and Justice (PiS) MEP, the previous liberal administration was attempting to build a triangle between Russia, Germany, and Poland.
The problem was that Poland was the weakest link in such a triangle and thereby condemned to being subordinate.
In order to build such a triangle, Poland was willing to accept the German line of seeing Russia as a partner. Germany, argued Waszczykowski, is still living the myth that Russia must be part of European security arrangements. Radosław Sikorski, when he was foreign minister in the Donald Tusk government, believed that Poland should be part of that cooperation and that it would be beneficial to Polish interests.
Waszczykowski believes that the Germans are still tied to the hope that Russia can be made into a European state. They believe this because they want access to the great Russian market and to benefit from cheap Russian carbohydrons.
But they fail to understand that “relations between Germany and Poland in terms of trade are much more important for them” and that they are earning more from trading with the Visegrád Group than with France.
