Warsaw, January 5, 2001
Siwiec and Russian ambassador discuss nuclear weapons issue.
Presidential National Security Council Member Gen. Henryk Szumski said in a radio program that during the meeting between President Kwasniewski's National Security Board head Marek Siwiec and Russian ambassador to Poland Sergey Razov, Russia had stuck by its statement that the enclave of Kaliningrad is a nuclearfree zone. Poland sees no potential threat to its security at the moment.

Warsaw, January 9, 2001
Kwaśniewski, Kostunica Open New Era In Bilateral Relations.
During his visit in Belgrade, President Kwaśniewski stated that Poland and Yugoslavia will cooperate in many important projects in the power industry and motorway building. Kwaśniewski also invited Kostunica to pay a visit to Poland. This opens a new era in the relations between the two countries.

Berlin, January 14, 2001
Kwaśniewski Invited German President to Poland. President Kwaśniewski took part in the ball staged by the city's journalists' association. The ball, a charity initiative with 130 years' tradition, was held this year under the motto "Germans and Poles-friends and partners in Europe". Kwaśniewski also had a lecture in Berlin in which he voiced the hope that this year would see a breakthrough in Poland's accession talks with the EU. He assured his German hosts that Polish farming is undergoing modernization and would keep up with the reforms in the Union. Kwaśniewski also invited German President Johannes Rau to visit Poland this year.

Warsaw, January 16, 2001
Israeli Ambassador to Poland and Head of the Yad Vashem Remembrance Institute in Jerusalem Shevach Weiss handed over medals of The Righteous Among the Nations of the World to six Polish families for saving Jews from Holocaust

Warsaw, January 17, 2001
A Polish-Danish military inspection of the Russian Baltic Fleet stationed in the Kaliningrad District was carried out on January 15 and 16, the BNS Agency reported. BNS stressed that the inspection was unconnected with recent reports of nuclear arms in Kaliningrad. The inspection was carried out by three Polish and one Danish officer under an accord on conventional forces in Europe (CFE) and the 1999 Vienna Document On Confidence Building Measures. It covered the whole district of Kaliningrad on land and from the air. A Spokesman of the Polish Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the inspection's aim was to assess the current military situation in the Kaliningrad District with regard to conventional forces and weapons. The inspection was a routine verification venture planned by Poland and agreed upon last year within NATO's internal coordination activity.

Zgorzelec, January 19, 2001
Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek officially opened a gas line transporting gas from Norway to Poland in Lasow by Zgorzelec, southwestern Poland. The opening ceremony had a symbolic character as the line has been in operation since last October. Buzek also spoke with representatives of the major foreign gas corporations selling gas to Poland: Germany's Verbundnetz Gas (VNG) and Ruhrgas and Norway's Statoil. No details of the talks were disclosed. At the moment Poland imports only small quantities of gas from Norway but an increase in the quota is foreseen.

Pszczyna, January 19, 2001
The presidents of the Visegrad countries at a meeting in Pszczyna, Poland, voiced their contentment with the recent EU summit in Nice, the support for Slovakia's NATO membership and the close cooperation within the Visegrad Group. In a joint "Pszczyna Declaration" the presidents said that Poland's, the Czech Republic's, Slovakia’s and Hungary's EU access was a priority issue. "We want the 2004 elections to the European Parliament to take place with the participation of our countries and populations", Poland's President Aleksander Kwaśniewski said after the meeting. The Visegrad presidents praised the resolutions of the Nice EU summit, which set favorable conditions for enlargement. Czech president Vaclav Havel said the Nice summit was a sign of a political will to enlarge the EU. Hungarian head of state Ferenc Madl called the summit a "historical break-through". In their declaration the pre-sidents also expressed their hope that Slovakia will soon become a full member of NATO. Slovak President Rudolf Schuster said that the present year would be of key import for Slovakia's NATO entry. The Visegrad Group was formed on February 15, 1991 on an initiative by Czech president Vaclav Havel. Its foun-ding members were Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary.

Yalta, January 22, 2001
Poland's and Ukraine's Defense Mi-nisters, Stanislaw Komorowski and Oleksandr Kuzhmuk signed a Partnership for Peace accord on cooperation between their ministries in the period between 2001 and 2003. The cooperation plans are to cover political dialogue, consul-tations on security matters, joint military projects and Poland's support for Ukraine's defense reforms.

Moscow, February 6, 2001
Poland's Foreign Minister Władysław Bartoszewski in an address in Moscow's Diplomatic Academy said history should not be manipulated for political ends and that it was necessary to disclose the truth about past events. As an example Bartoszewski named the importance to Poland of the disclosure of the truth about the Soviets' 1940 mass executions of Polish army officers in Katyń. Mutual trust is necessary for building normal relations and that past relations between Russia and Poland had at times been marked by hostility and injustice, but that there had also been times of friendship between both countries. The past should neither be forgotten nor overlooked, but that more understanding for the other's needs could lead to the future emer-gence of a common denominator for Poland and Russia. Europe's unity called for breaking away from the heritage of Yalta and for securing lasting peace and safety, and underscored the changes in this respect that had already taken place in Russia and Poland. After joining the EU Poland will not want its eastern borders to become a barrier to cooperation and interpersonal ties. The EU's enlargement to the east meant the expansion of sta-bility and welfare, which could be of great benefit for countries in the region. I will leave in an optimistic frame of mind, because together with my Russian colleagues we have managed to take a couple of small steps along the path to normality.

Szczecin, February 9, 2001
A group of German warships sailed into the war port of Swinoujscie to take part in Polish-German naval exercises on the Baltic Sea from Monday. This is this year's first visit of German warships, including two mine-sweepers and a mine-laying ship, in the port. A trawler of the Polish naval forces will join the German ships to take part in the two-day military maneuvers codenamed Gunex 2001.

Warsaw, February 9, 2001
Goeffrey Hoon, the British Secretary of State for Defense, met with Deputy Defense Minister Romuald Szeremietiew to discuss the position of the two countries as NATO members and Europe's defense policy. Great Britain and Poland are in a different situation: the two countries are NATO members but Poland is to become a member of the European Union. This means that the tasks we want to implement in Europe must be carried out with the participation of Poland - Szeremietiew said. The two politicians also discussed the situation in the Balkans, military cooperation and the modernization of the Polish army.

Warsaw, February 19, 2001
A Polish Association of Europe Houses was set up in Poland by the Polish-German Neighborhood Club and the Wit Stwosz Foundation. Former Prime Minister Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz has become its chairman. The Associations of Europe Houses were created at the initiative of the Council of Europe in 1962. The Polish association plans to create Europe Houses centers in five regions of Poland to stimulate social activities in the process of Poland's integration with the European Union.

Warsaw, March 5, 2001
President Aleksander Kwaśniewski believes that the signing of the Nice treaty by the EU countries has sealed the Union's enlargement. I am convinced EU enlargement is a decided issue and that today's negotiations mainly concern the ways in which we will achieve this, Kwaśniewski said at a meeting with members of the Joint Poland-EU Parliamentary Committee. He added that the Nice treaty put enlargement matters in the right direction. Commenting on Poland's EU talks, Kwaśniewski said they were progressing in sweat and toil, but steadily and stressed that negative public opinion concerning enlargement in many of the EU countries constituted one of the hindrances to the process. Kwaśniewski said that this autumn's parliamentary elections will do nothing to change Poland's attitude to enlargement and confirmed that Poland's EU membership was his major aim as President.