| Poland Ambassador to Belarus | |
|---|---|
| Ambasador Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej na Białorusi | |
 | |
Incumbent since 2024Krzysztof Ożanna (chargé d’affaires) | |
| Reports to | Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs |
| Seat | Minsk, Belarus |
| Appointer | President of Poland |
| Term length | No fixed term |
| Website | Embassy of Poland, Belarus |
The Republic of Poland Ambassador to Belarus is the official representative of the President and Government of Poland to the head of state of Belarus.
Until 1991 the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic had been a constituent SSR of the Soviet Union. Upon the breakup of the USSR, the Supreme Soviet of Belarus declared itself independent of the Soviet Union on August 25, 1991, and renamed itself the Republic of Belarus on September 19, 1991. The Republic of Poland recognised Belarus on March 2, 1992. An embassy was established in the capital, Minsk, in 1992, with Elżbieta Smułkowa as Chargé d’Affaires. Relations between Poland and Belarus have been continuous since that time.
Polish Embassy in Belarus is located in Minsk. Additionally there are Consulates General located in Brest and Grodno. [1]
The Byelorussian SSR was one of only two Soviet republics to be separate members of the United Nations. Both republics and the Soviet Union joined the UN when the organization was founded in 1945.
The Republic of Poland is a Central European country and member of the European Union and NATO, among others. Poland wields considerable influence in Central and Eastern Europe and is a middle power in international affairs. The foreign policy of Poland is based on four basic commitments: to Atlantic co-operation, to European integration, to international development and to international law.
The politics of Belarus takes place in a framework of a presidential republic with a bicameral parliament. The President of Belarus is the head of state. Executive power is nominally exercised by the government, at its top sits a ceremonial prime minister, appointed directly by the President. Legislative power is de jure vested in the bicameral parliament, the National Assembly, however the president may enact decrees that are executed the same way as laws, for undisputed time.
Western Belorussia or Western Belarus is a historical region of modern-day Belarus which belonged to the Second Polish Republic during the interwar period. For twenty years before the 1939 invasion of Poland, it was the northern part of the Polish Kresy macroregion. Following the end of World War II in Europe, most of Western Belorussia was ceded to the Soviet Union by the Allies, while some of it, including Białystok, was given to the Polish People's Republic. Until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Western Belorussia formed the western part of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR). Today, it constitutes the west of modern Belarus.
The Polish minority in Belarus numbers officially 288,000 according to 2019 census. However, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland the number is as high as 1,100,000. It forms the second largest ethnic minority in the country after the Russians, at around 3.1% of the total population according to the official census. According to the official census, an estimated 205,200 Belarusian Poles live in large agglomerations and 82,493 in smaller settlements, with the number of women exceeding the number of men by 33,905. Some estimates by Polish non-governmental sources in the U.S. are higher, citing the previous poll held in 1989 under the Soviet authorities with 413,000 Poles recorded and the census of 1959 with 538,881 Poles recorded in Belarus.
The Republic of Poland and the Republic of Belarus established diplomatic relations on 2 March 1992. Poland was one of the first countries to recognise Belarusian independence. Both countries share a border and have shared histories, for they have been part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and later, the Russian Empire. They joined the United Nations together in October 1945 as original members. The two countries are currently engaged in a border crisis.
Siarhei Vosipavich Prytytski was a Belarusian Soviet communist activist, politician, and partisan commander. Having started as a communist activist in Western Belarus, after the Soviet invasion of Poland he became a high-ranking politician in the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic.
The Embassy of Ukraine in Minsk is the diplomatic mission of Ukraine in Belarus.
The Embassy of the Philippines in Moscow is the diplomatic mission of the Republic of the Philippines to the Russian Federation. Occupied since 1978, it is located on 6/8 Karmanitskiy Lane in the Arbat District of central Moscow, a short walk from the headquarters of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and near the former home of Alexander Pushkin on Arbat Street and the Spaso House, the official residence of the Ambassador of the United States to Russia.
Artur Antoni Michalski is a Polish diplomat and journalist; an ambassador to Moldova (2012–2017) and Belarus (2018–2023).
