Paweł Jabłoński made the statement in an interview with public broadcaster Polish Radio.
On Monday, Poland’s Interior Minister Mariusz Kamiński announced that Poland was limiting freight traffic from Belarus through the Kukuryki-Kozlovishche border crossing, after the government in Minsk banned Polish trucks from entering Belarus through Lithuania and Latvia.
Speaking to Polish Radio on Tuesday morning, Jabłoński was asked if the Polish government would close all border crossings with Belarus.
Jabłoński said: “If it’s necessary, especially for security reasons, then we’ll definitely be ready to do it.”
Jabłoński added that "any moves would be based on an ongoing analysis of the situation."
He told Polish Radio: “It’s not as if we are guided only by political considerations because we are aware that there are freight companies which are allowed to transport goods that are not subject to the embargo over the border and they are doing it.”
“However, if our analysis shows that there is an increasing threat to security, then such decisions can be taken,” Jabłoński added.
Tensions between Poland and Belarus
Restrictions for Polish trucks were announced by Belarus last Friday and are part of its response to the closure of a key Polish-Belarusian border crossing in Bobrowniki by Poland earlier this month, according to news outlets.
In a further retaliatory move, Belarus this week expelled three Polish diplomats, officials said.
Poland’s Kamiński said in a tweet on Friday that if the curbs came into force, “Poland’s response towards Belarusian freight companies will be identical.”
On Saturday, Anna Michalska, the spokeswoman for the Polish Border Guard agency, confirmed that Polish trucks were no longer allowed to enter Belarus through Lithuania and Latvia, and were now able to do so “only through the Polish-Belarusian border crossing in Kukuryki/Koroszczyn.”
'In the interest of national security'
On February 9, Poland announced that, “in the interest of national security,” it was suspending traffic at the Polish-Belarusian border crossing in Bobrowniki from February 10 until further notice.
The move was made after a court in Grodno sentenced Polish-Belarusian journalist and activist Andrzej Poczobut to eight years in “a maximum security penal colony” in what was widely seen as a politically motivated case.
Bobrowniki had recently been the only road border crossing with Belarus in Poland’s northeastern Podlaskie province.
The largest road border crossing, in Kuźnica, was closed in November 2021 until further notice due to a migrant crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border.
At the moment, two Polish-Belarusian border crossings are active, both of them in Poland’s eastern Lubelskie region: the Terespol-Brest crossing for passenger traffic and Kukuryki-Kozlovishche for freight traffic, the PAP news agency reported.
Poland has been an important refuge for opponents of Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, and Warsaw has become one of Kyiv's most steadfast supporters since Belarus' main ally Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year, the Reuters news agency reported.
Tuesday is day 363 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP, dziennik.pl