Posted on 07/26/2025 10:57:20 PM PDT by Cronos
Polish President Andrzej Duda has signed into law a bill formally withdrawing the country from the Ottawa Treaty, which bans the use of anti-personnel landmines, citing deteriorating regional security and increasing threats from Russia.
The decision aligns Poland with several of its neighbours, including the three Baltic states – Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia – and Finland, which have also taken steps to exit the treaty in recent months.
Asked about the decision in late June, Duda described it as a “rational step” in light of the “deteriorating security situation” linked in part to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The bill was passed last week by the Senate, the upper house of Poland’s parliament, without any changes to the version approved in June by the more powerful lower house, the Sejm.
Defence minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz has long described the bill as essential for national security and called Duda’s signing of it “a decision of great importance”.
“In view of the threats on NATO’s eastern flank, we must have all the tools necessary to defend our borders,” Kosiniak-Kamysz wrote in a post on X. “The security of Poland and Poles is paramount. The borders of the Republic of Poland must be inviolable.”
The use of landmines is controversial because they are indiscriminate weapons and can remain in place long after a conflict has finished, meaning they often end up harming civilians.
Poland ratified the Ottawa Treaty in 2012 and, over the following three years, destroyed all of its anti-personnel mines – over one million in total.
However, in March this year, Poland and the three Baltic states announced plans to withdraw from the treaty, arguing that they need to “send a clear message: our countries are prepared and can use every necessary measure to defend our territory and freedom”.
The countries, however, reiterated their commitment to “international humanitarian law, including the protection of civilians during an armed conflict”, despite their decision.
In June, Finland’s parliament voted by a large margin to pull out of the treaty, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also signed a decree formalising his country’s withdrawal.
Currently, over 160 countries have agreed to the terms of the treaty; among those who have not are Russia, China, India and the United States. Russia continues to use anti-personnel mines in its war against Ukraine.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Poland has embarked on an unprecedented military spending spree. It has increased its defence budget to 4.7% of GDP this year, by far the highest relative level in NATO.
Last year, the Polish government unveiled plans for the “Eastern Shield”, a major fortification of Poland’s borders with Belarus and Russia that would potentially include the arming of minefields. The plans are being coordinated with the three Baltic states.
Technically those lands were at one point Polish, but that’s not a reason for them being Polish today as most lands in Europe have belonged to multiple political entities at different times in history.
Those lands are Polish populated today and Germany has signed treaties accepting that fact. Thanks yo both countries being in the EU, Germans can live, work, buy property etc and live in Breslau or Warmia. Some do, but the fact if the open borders makes the irredentist claims not a factor
The threat from Muscowy is acknowledged by all parties in Poland except the far left
The link you gave says “Starting in May 2022, Poland stopped importing coal from Russia.”
It’s not Muscowite divisions sweeping across Europe, rather it is Moscow causing havoc with s limited invasion
If the Russians were smart, they'll agree to the ceasefire in Ukraine. Then they'll invade the Baltics with 300,000 troops.
In that hypothetical scenario, what will Trump do? Most likely nothing other than secondary sanctions on nations trading with Russia.
NATO and President Trump have troops in the Baltics, if they were invaded Trump would have to operate as a NATO member and fight back.
Trump is unlikely to defend. Germany, France, the UK? They'll depend on Trump.
Similar to 1938 when Hitler seized Czechoslovakia and the Western Allies didn't know what to do.
You think that if NATO and our American troops are attacked in a NATO country as Russia invades us, that President Trump will flee and disregard article 5, and submit to Russia’s attacks on our NATO alliance?
it isn't as easy as it could have been if Putin hadn't invaded Ukraine in 2022
If he hadn't invaded in 2022, Finland would never have joined NATO, NATO would slowly collapse and Putin could have even walked in in just a few years.
But now his hubris has ensured that can't happen
If Muscowite forces harm American troops, any US President would be obliged to declare war
That is correct, and actually historians of both nations are collaborating on numerous projects and issues concerning the past. It is Copernicus University in Toruń/Thorn in former Royal Prussia, which does the best and most unbiased research on the subject of the Teutonic Order, which ruled this region of present day Poland from the 13th to the 16th century 🙂
And on the prospect of war ein Europe: I do think that the brave Poles might come to the rescue if the situation in Germany should escalate to a full-scale civil war, as they did in 1683 against the Turks. You see, in 1900, twenty five per cent of humanity lived in Europe, even in 1950, it had declined relatively little to about twenty-two per cent, in spite of the horrific losses in the World Wars. Now, Europeans make up just above nine per cent of Mankind.
Thus, a threat to one of us will metastasise into a threat to all in due time.
The future is East of Suez
I would point out I am ethnically not Polish.
All of Europe, or nearly all of it, has been “owned” by different peoples at different points in time. If we fought over it, it would be never ending.
Better to share.
Just a note to your “in 1900, 25% of humanity lived in Europe”.
That was an aberration due to the industrial revolution.
If you dial back to 1000 AD, 12% of humanity lived in Europe.
In the year 1500 AD 16% of humanity lived in Europe
And in the year 500 AD, 11% of humanity lived in Europe
cost and who is going to monitor them?...but mainly cost.
Thank you very much, Mr Cronos 🙂 Actually, I hadn’t been aware that the relatively high population of Europe from the mid 19th to mid 20th century was such a historic anomaly.
But certainly, there were epochs in which the population „center of gravity“ on Earth did shift around quite significantly: I have heard that under the rule of Genghis Khan tremendous amounts of people were killed, so many that the effect was notable in the size of the forests, which increased significantly, and in the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Or the loss of such a high percentage of the Indigenous people of the Western Hemisphere after 1492, who had no natural immunity from the diseases the Europeans brought with them - although estimates vary wildly.
Demographics is a fascinating subject indeed.
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