How Poland Lost its Foreign Policy Compass

It was only in 2015 when Law and Justice (PiS) changed the bearing, placing the alliance with Donald Trump atop the hierarchy of priorities, simultaneously setting a collision course with Europe. This change was deservedly viewed as controversial, but at least it was clear what it was guided by. At present nobody knows anything.

Recent weeks have demonstrated that Poland is rudderless and bobbing around on the waves of international politics with no clear aim or direction.

When the countries of the EU were preparing for US President Joe Biden's crucial visit to Europe, Poland's foreign minister travelled to China. Beijing is currently the main area of interest in transatlantic affairs. The G7 summit in Cornwall, the NATO summit and the US-EU summit — all these recent crucial events have been centred on the Chinese question. The US wants to build a Western counterweight to China and the EU is currently hardening its stance towards it. The EU has recently imposed sanctions for repression against the Uighurs, it has withheld the ratification of an agreement on investments and is working on a range of instruments to counter the economic pressure coming from China.

Yet Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau, along with his most pro-Chinese counterparts in Europe (in Serbia and Hungary), bucked this trend and praised the intensification of cooperation with China. He also strongly supported the agreement on investments that the EU is now stalling on.

Rau has spoken about respecting China's legitimate interests, but did not utter a word about human rights. In May, Lithuania accused China of genocide and withdrew from the 17+1 China-CEE regional cooperation format, but the Polish government rediscovered its love for this grouping. President...