Abstract
Between 1999 and 2008, Poland’s policies towards Kosovo were a by-product of Warsaw’s relationship with NATO and the United States. Poland strongly supported the NATO air campaign against Serbia and later contributed to international missions in the country. However, while Poland recognised Kosovo’s independence in 2008, it did not establish direct diplomatic relations with it. This was mainly the result of domestic political considerations and rivalries. While Poland has been supportive of the EU dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina and supports Kosovo’s EU perspective, there is limited interest or will in Poland to change the status quo.
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Notes
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The other opposition party, Lewica i Demokraci (Left and Democrats; mainly former SLD members) also called on the government to be or caution and not make immediate decisions; although they were not, however, rejecting recognition outright.
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Interview with a former senior Polish diplomat, March 2017.
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A year later, following a meeting with his Serbian counterpart Boris Tadić in May 2009 Kaczyński stated that he had disagreed with the Polish government’s position, but indicated that Kosovo’s recognition was a decision of a democratically elected Polish government. ‘Lech Kaczyński poparł Serbię w sprawie Kosowa’ [‘Lech Kaczynski supports Serbia in the case of Kosovo’], Portal Spraw Zagranicznych, 14 May 2009, http://www.psz.pl/91-europa/lech-kaczynski-poparl-serbie-w-sprawie-kosowa.
- 33.
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- 37.
In its submission to the International Court of Justice, the Polish Government noted: ‘The Republic of Poland abstained from voting on that resolution as a country that recognised Kosovo as a State. The Republic of Poland has also viewed the Declaration of Independence of 17 February 2008 as an act that has not conflicted with any norm of international law. Nevertheless, the Republic of Poland did not oppose the adoption of the resolution A/RES/63/3, bearing in mind that one of the purposes of the United Nations is ‘to develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples’ and that the access to the Court, ‘the principal judicial organ of the United Nations’, is an important factor in the development of friendly relations between nations’, International Court of Justice, Request by the United Nations General Assembly for an Advisory Opinion on the ‘Accordance with International Law of the Unilateral Declaration of Independence by the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government of Kosovo’. A written statement of the Republic of Poland, 14 April 2009, http://www.icj-cij.org/files/case-related/141/15632.pdf.
- 38.
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- 45.
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- 46.
For example, within a relatively short time span (June–July 2017) Ryszard Czarnecki published three opinion pieces critical of Kosovo: ‘Kosowo: coraz bardziej albańskie i coraz bardziej islamskie’ [‘Kosovo: increasingly Albanian and Islamist’], Wszystko Co Najważniejsze, 17 June 2017 https://wszystkoconajwazniejsze.pl/ryszard-czarnecki-kosowo-coraz-bardziej-albanskie-coraz-bardziej-islamskie/; ‘Czarny orzeł nad Kosowem’ [‘Black eagle over Kosovo’], Wprost Weekly Magazine, 25 June 2017 https://www.wprost.pl/tygodnik/10061923/Czarny-orzel-nad-Kosowem.html; ‘Kosowo—zapach “wielkiej Albanii”?’ [‘Kosovo: the scent of “Greater Albania”?’], http://www.ryszardczarnecki.pl/2017/07/kosowo-zapach-wielkiej-albanii/, Ryszard Czarnecki’s website, 2 July 2017.
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Wiśniewski, J. (2020). Poland: Recognition, but No Diplomatic Relations with Kosovo. In: Armakolas, I., Ker-Lindsay, J. (eds) The Politics of Recognition and Engagement. New Perspectives on South-East Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17945-8_6
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