1994 treaty between the Republic of Poland and the Republic of Lithuania on friendly relations and neighbourly cooperation: successes and new challenges

Lithuania and Poland share a long history together dating from the Commonwealth of the Two Nations. However, in modern history, the most difficult period was the twentieth century, when territorial disputes arose between the two countries as a result of the reorganisation of the whole political system of Europe and the transition to the system of nation-states. This aggravated relations between the two nations for a long time and has had a significant impact on further relations between Lithuania and Poland, including the episode of entering into the Treaty Between the Republic of Poland and the Republic of Lithuania on Friendly Relations and Good-Neighbourly Cooperation in 1994 (hereafter the Treaty) (Traktat mied̨zy Rzeczap̨ospolita ̨ Polska a Republika Litewska o przyjaznych stosunkach i dobrosas̨iedzkiej współpracy, 1995). The circumstances of the signing of the Lithuanian-Polish treaty, the last such treaty among all those Poland concluded with its neighbours, clearly reflect the complexity of the relations between Lithuania and Poland. However, while taking account of the intensity of those relations and their periodic ups and downs, we may state that great potential still exists for their further development. When researching the relations between Lithuania and Poland in depth, one finds that they are not easy to understand. In the mass media there is a wide range of articles in which both scholars and politicians, as well as active ordinary members of society, speak in the most diverse ways about the relations between Lithuania and Poland. Most often, such views relate to the issue of national minorities and their rights on both sides of the common border. The long, common history shared by Lithuania and Poland still has a considerable impact on current relations and adds an extra burden. In short, any analysis of Lithuanian-Polish relations is complicated in terms of both content and methodology. In this sense, the Lithuanian-Polish Treaty provided a useful tool for systematising relations between Lithuania and Poland in such fields of bilateral cooperation as the military and security, institutions, the economy and trade, cross-border issues, infrastructure (energy and transport), the protection of national minorities, cultural cooperation, and cooperation in the fields of science, education and justice. This list naturally allows us to see a more complex area of relations and to distance ourselves from the issue of ethnic minorities that is given such enormous attention by the media. This chapter does not touch upon the problem of national minorities, because that problem is very broad, often discussed and heavily politicised. Moreover, because it is often perceived as a cornerstone of Lithuanian-Polish relations, it has already been well researched. Another issue that will not be touched on here is cooperation in the field of justice, because it is a technical judicial administrative question where all cooperation is carried out on the basis of approved international procedures.