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 Latvia |  Poland |
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Latvia–Poland relations are foreign relations betweenLatvia andPoland. Both countries enjoy good relations and are close allies. There are around 57,000Poles living in Latvia.
Both countries are full members of theEuropean Union,NATO,OECD,OSCE,Bucharest Nine,Three Seas Initiative,Council of Europe,Council of the Baltic Sea States andHELCOM.
Present-day Latvia was part of thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in its entirety until 1621, and then partially until thePartitions of Poland. It endured several Swedish invasions during the Polish–Swedish wars of1600–1611,1617–1618,1621–1625,1626–1629,1655–1660 and1700–1721. TheBattle of Kircholm at modernSalaspils, Latvia, in which the Poles defeated the more numerous invading Swedes in 1605, is considered one of the greatest victories in Polish military history. It is commemorated in Salaspils.
In the 19th century, bothPoles andLatvians were subjected toRussification policies within theRussian Empire.
AfterWorld War I, both Latvia and Poland regained independence, and the nations became allies against the invadingSoviet Russians. In January 1920 a joint Polish and Latvian force defeated the Red Army in theBattle of Daugavpils. In 1920, over 2,500 Polish soldiers of the formerPolish Legion in Finland were evacuated from Finland viaLiepāja to Poland.[1] The Polish victory in theBattle of Warsaw in August 1920, secured both Polish and Latvian independence. Both countries shared a common border in theinterbellum.
In 1922, Poland, Latvia,Estonia andFinland were the signatories of theWarsaw Accord, which however did not enter into force, as Finland did not ratify it under pressure ofGermany, which was hostile to Poland.[2] Instead, in 1925, Poland, Latvia, Finland and Estonia signed a convention onconciliation andarbitration inHelsinki.[3]
In 1937–1938, both ethnic Poles and Latvians in the Soviet Union were subjected togenocidal campaigns carried out by theNKVD, known as thePolish Operation and theLatvian Operation respectively. Following theMolotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Poland and Latvia were both to be occupied byNazi Germany and theSoviet Union. During theinvasion of Poland by Germany and the Soviet Union at the start ofWorld War II in September 1939, there were some 29,000 Polish citizens in Latvia, and soon 2,000 Polish refugees arrived to Latvia.[4]Aleksandra Piłsudska, widow of pre-war Polish leaderJózef Piłsudski, with daughtersWanda andJadwiga fled through Latvia toSweden.[4] Poland wasoccupied by Germany and the Soviet Union since 1939, while Latvia wasoccupied solely by the Soviet Union since June 1940. Both nations were under common oppression, and many Poles and Latvians were forcefully deported by the Russians toSiberia.[5] In the course ofOperation Barbarossa, from mid-1941, both countries were entirely occupied by Germany. Latvian conscripts from the SovietRed Army alike Polish POWs and civilians were among the prisoners of theStalag II-BGerman prisoner-of-war camp inCzarne.[6]
In 1942, Polish Prime Minister-in-ExileWładysław Sikorski's intervention to British and American authorities thwarted Soviet attempts to obtain Allied approval for the planned annexation of Latvia and eastern Poland.[7]
In 1944–1945, both countries were again occupied by Soviet forces. Soviet repressions and deportations of both Latvian and Polish citizens continued. Poland's formal independence was eventually restored, although with a Soviet-installed communist regime, while Latvia was annexed into the Soviet Union, thus both had no relationship until thedissolution of the Soviet Union.
Afterthe fall of theUSSR, both countries re-established diplomatic relations on August 30, 1991.
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April 12, 2010, was declared a day of national mourning in Latvia to commemorate the 96 victims of theSmolensk air disaster, including Polish PresidentLech Kaczyński and his wifeMaria Kaczyńska.[8]
ThePolish Air Force takes part in the NATOBaltic Air Policing mission to guard the airspace over the Baltic states including Latvia. Since 2017, a Polish military contingent has been stationed in Latvia as part of theNATO Enhanced Forward Presence defense forces.
In 2022, Latvian and Polish gas grids were connected, following the commissioning of the GIPL interconnection, also providing Latvia with a connection to the EU gas market.[9]
Poland joinedNATO in 1999, whereas Latvia joined NATO in 2004. Both countries became members of theEuropean Union in 2004.
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