President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, in a conversation with his Polish counterpart, expressed “strong support” for Warsaw’s actions.
President Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan told his Polish counterpart that the United States unconditionally supports Poland in the dispute with neighboring Belarus. Warsaw accuses Minsk of purposefully sending illegal migrants to the Belarusian-Polish border.
Sullivan “expressed strong support for Poland in the face of the actions of the regime of [Belarusian President Alexander] Lukashenko, which led to the migration crisis,” the White House said in a statement.
During a telephone conversation with Pawel Soloch, head of the Polish National Security Bureau, Jake Sullivan also stressed “close bilateral cooperation on defense issues and welcomed the ongoing efforts to strengthen NATO’s deterrence strategy,” the statement said.
The interlocutors also exchanged views on the actions of the Russian military near the Ukrainian border, the White House said in a statement.
Poland accuses Belarus of deliberately fomenting a crisis in international relations and human rights. Minsk, according to Warsaw, lures desperate migrants – mainly from the Middle East – with promises of easy entry to Poland and the European Union.
Belarus denies these accusations, but Poland also claims that Russia, Belarus’ main ally, is taking part in an attempt to destabilize the European Union.
On Wednesday, the human rights organization Human Rights Watch said that Belarusian border guards mistreat migrants, and even use torture, adding that Poland also allows “serious human rights violations.”
