13. Treaty on Friendship and Neighbourhood Cooperation Between Poland and Russia: Implementation and Challenges (a Russian Perspective)

Russia and Poland share a common border and common problems, but it is difficult for them to combine their efforts and solve those problems together. They have a controversial history of dealing with each other. Taking this negative context into account, it was particularly important that the President of Poland, Lech Wałęsa, proposed negotiating a treaty that would provide a framework for cooperation between the two states, and that the Soviet authorities supported this idea. This chapter puts forward Russia’s interpretation of the negotiations conducted between the Polish and the Soviet (then-Russian) authorities on the friendship and neighbourhood treaty, and describes the treaty’s impact on further cooperation between Poland and Russia. This chapter starts with an evaluation of the negotiations and their final result, indicating major elements of the treaty, and then examines two aspects of relations between Poland and Russia: (1) political and military issues and (2) cross-border cooperation.