President supports Poland's departure from Ottawa Treaty, says MoD
The Presidential Palace is in favour of Poland's withdrawal from the Ottawa Treaty, the deputy prime minister and defence minister has said after a meeting with the head of the National Security Bureau (BBN).
Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz made the announcement during a press conference on Tuesday, following a conversation held earlier in the day with BBN head Dariusz Lukowski.
On the same day, the Polish Ministry of National Defence published a joint statement by Kosiniak-Kamysz and his counterparts from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia in which the four ministers underlined that, in light of a considerable deterioration of the security situation in the region caused by Russia's aggression against Ukraine and the threat posed by Russia to the Euro-Atlantic community, it was "of key significance to define all measures which could serve the strengthening of our deterrence and defence capabilities."
"We, the defence ministers of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, unanimously recommend withdrawing from the Ottawa Convention," they wrote, adding that their decision was a clear message of their readiness to employ all necessary measures to safeguard their territories and independence.
The four ministers reaffirmed their countries' further commitment to international humanitarian law and the protection of civilians during an armed conflict.
Kosiniak-Kamysz also said that Finland was another country mulling over the withdrawal from the treaty.
"I believe that, very soon, all countries of the NATO eastern flank will take a similar decision," he added.
He also said that this was not the end of work on the matter as, in fact, it was the beginning. "What is needed here is a decision of the Council of Ministers... as this is a law regarding the withdrawal from an international agreement. It must be later approved by parliament," he explained.
According to Kosiniak-Kamysz, Poland's decision would later be submitted to the UN. "Six months is what it takes to depart from the convention," he added.
"But today we have made a very important political declaration which shows that we are determined to defend our homeland," he concluded.
The Ottawa Treaty, formally the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and Their Destruction, aims to eliminate anti-personnel landmines globally for the sake of civilians' safety. According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, the treaty which came into force in 1999, has significantly reduced the use of these weapons. However, key states, including Russia, China, and Israel, have not joined the agreement. It has been ratified by 163 states. Poland ratified the agreement in 2012.
Since the outbreak of the full-scale war, Russia has extensively used anti-personnel mines in Ukraine, resulting in hundreds of civilians being killed and thousands injured, according to the Ukrainian Defence Ministry. (PAP)
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