11/23/2006

Merkel to hold talks with France's Chirac and Poland's Kaczynski

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will meet with French President Jacques Chirac and his Polish counterpart Lech Kaczynski in the southwestern German town of Mettlach on December 5, the government announced in Berlin on Wednesday.

Dubbed as 'The Weimar Triangle', the summit will focus on international and European issues.

The meeting was initially scheduled to take place in the east German city of Weimar last July but was called off by Kaczynski.

Officially the Polish president cited health problems for his sudden cancellation but unofficially it was reported that he was upset over the publication of a caricature in a leftist Berlin-based newspaper which mocked him.

German-Polish relations have experienced deep strains over a series of political issues in recent months.

Poland objects to German plans to build a 1,200 kilometer gas pipeline linking Russia and Germany via the Baltic Sea.

The gas link is set to bypass Poland and Ukraine, prompting concern from both countries that they will be cut off from Russian gas supplies.

Another major point of contention between Warsaw and Berlin remained the questions of property related to the post-1945 expulsion of ethnic Germans from Poland.

While Merkel reaffirmed that she opposed plans by a private German expellee group to file lawsuits against Poland in an effort to get compensation for lost property, she firmly dismissed Polish calls for a formal treaty which would ban individuals from launching lawsuits.

Poland which harbors historic grievances against Germany, remains deeply suspicious of Berlin's policy towards the eastern European country.

Meanwhile German political leaders have repeatedly expressed concern over attempts by right-wing Polish politicians to
instrumentalise anti-German feelings for their own political gain.
Source:irna.ir



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