For nearly 30 years, the Weimar Triangle has brought together the West and the East, linking Poland, France and Germany. It has proven its value by strengthening cohesion between eastern and western EU countries and bringing different perspectives together. Germany has therefore worked hard to bring about a meeting in this format. With the last meeting at the level of Foreign Ministers dating back to 2016, Heiko Maas and the new Polish Foreign Minister will today visit Paris at the invitation of Jean-Yves Le Drian. This sends the clear signal that cooperation between Warsaw, Berlin and Paris is important, especially these days.

Belarus, Russia and Nagorno-Karabakh – close coordination within the Weimar Triangle

Among the items on the Weimar Triangle’s agenda today are relations with Russia, the situation in Belarus and the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. In Belarus, Germany, France and Poland are seeking to strengthen civil society, for it is still facing suppression. Together, EU Foreign Ministers on Monday agreed on additional sanctions – which also target Mr Lukashenko himself. What is needed now is a national dialogue in Belarus that paves the way for free and fair elections.

The European Union has also shown great unity with regard to Russia: on Monday, based on a Franco-German proposal, the unilateral decision was taken to impose sanctions in response to the attack that was carried out on Alexei Navalny with an illegal chemical agent – making this a matter of concern for the entire international community. Russia remains called on to participate in the investigation of the incident, which it has not adequately done so far.

First official visit to Berlin by the Polish Foreign Minister

Heiko Maas and Zbigniew Rau, the Polish Foreign Minister, will simultaneously board flights to Berlin in the afternoon, where they are scheduled to hold extensive bilateral talks. The German Foreign Minister has travelled to Poland more than to almost any other EU partner country. His visits focused on joint remembrance – for example, in Auschwitz or at commemorations of the Warsaw Uprising – and on key issues of the future, such as youth exchanges and economic topics. The agenda during their meeting at Villa Borsig today will cover both international issues and a project of German and Polish energy agencies that aims to create the first cross-border German-Polish energy region. A second bilateral, highly valued project is the German-Polish history textbook. The fourth and last volume of this work, which covers the period of the 20th century up to the present day, recently went to press and will be distributed in schools soon. Many German and Polish historians have contributed to the textbook. It gives the young generation a common perspective on the history of Europe and both countries.