GERMANY: Germany's new eastern foreign policy or Ostpolitik continues to develop with a promise from Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier that Berlin will work towards even closer strategic ties with Moscow in the future.
His remarks in Moscow, following Chancellor Angela Merkel's attempt to improve German-Polish relations in Warsaw on Friday, suggest Berlin will attempt a balancing act between Poland and Russia.
"The strategic partnership with Russia will not just continue to exist but will be granted a special status," Mr Steinmeier said after meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Mr Steinmeier said Dr Merkel would visit Moscow soon to underline "that we have a lot to talk about".
Germany's close political and economic relations with Moscow - trade between the two countries topped €15 billion in the first half of this year - has soured relations with Warsaw, particularly when the two countries announced a new gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany in August, bypassing Poland and Ukraine.Warsaw feared it would allow Moscow, through its Gazprom monopoly, to play politics with gas deliveries to Poland without affecting western European supply.
Polish-Russian relations have been tense since Poland's intervention in the Orange Revolution in Ukraine, and have worsened since Moscow banned imports of all Polish foodstuffs into Russia, a move Warsaw says is costing farmers $1 million (€854,555 million) a day.
Dr Merkel moved to end Polish concerns about the pipeline on Friday, saying it could be open to third parties. She also suggested a new museum in Berlin should tell the story of forced expulsion throughout history, and not just the story of Germans expelled at the end of the second World War from today's Polish territory. This has defused the row over the intended focus on German expellees, which was perceived by Warsaw as an attempt to turn history on its head.
The new German leader struck all the right notes with the Poles, judging from Saturday's enthusiastic coverage of the visit.
The best-selling Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper expressed hope for "an end to the animosity" and "a good atmosphere after the last two chilly years". However, it warned, with an eye on Moscow, that continuation of that atmosphere depended "on the good will of both sides".
Dr Merkel has said she will not agree "policy above Polish heads", but political observers in Warsaw and Berlin suggest a common European foreign policy towards Russia would be more convincing. "The German government has to explain better how the privileged partnership with Russia is also in the European interest," said Mr Kai-Olaf Lang of the Foundation for Science and Politics in Berlin.