Poland wants closer partnership with Asia
Oei Eng Goan, The Jakarta Post, Warsaw
With its membership in the enlarged European Union up for grabs, Poland has begun to intensify its political and economic relations with Asian countries, including those grouped under the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
The drive was affirmed by the visit of Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz to Brunei, Malaysia and Singapore earlier this year and his planned visit to Indonesia next year, aiming to expand Poland's cooperation and ties with ASEAN.
"The dialog in the framework of the ASEAN Regional Forum which deals with security issues is also very important and Poland hopes to be incorporated into these forms of Euro-Asian cooperation and the active dialog in their framework," Cimoszewicz told a group of visiting journalists from Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand late last month.
Poland is evidently aware that with the growing interdependence of nations in international relations -- especially now that the world community has been made vigilant against terrorist attacks following the tragedy that befell the Unites States on Sept. 11, 2001 -- dialog on security issues is of utmost importance.
"Individual states, and even the whole regions are not capable of solving such (complex and complicated) problems. That is why we need a global alliance," Cimoszewicz said, referring to Poland's ambition to join EU in 2004 and its intention to cooperate more closely with ASEAN member countries, in line with EU's strategic framework for an enhanced partnership with Asia.
Cooperation, obviously, includes expansion of trade ties.
"We also plan to expand our exports to your countries, because our products are good and are offered at very competitive prices aside from offering investments from Poland as in the case of our plan to build a tractor factory in Malaysia," he added.
Poland's total imports from ASEAN countries last year stood at around US$993 million while its exports to the 10-member countries of the regional grouping stood at $165.5 million. While this years's imports from ASEAN until June were recorded at $498.6 million, which constituted only 2.4 percent of its global imports of $20.76 billion during the first half of 2002. During that period Polish exports to the regional grouping stood at only $59.7 million.
Secretary of State in the Chancellery of the Prime Minister, Tadeusz Iwinski, noted, however, that friendly relations with ASEAN should not be based merely on trade but also on scientific, technological and cultural cooperation.
Poland's experience and expertise in naval ship building could be beneficial to countries in the region, especially Indonesia which has more than 13,000 islands, Iwinski said, adding that high level visits to Jakarta and other ASEAN capitals in recent months attested to Warsaw's intention to forge closer ties with Southeast Asian countries.
"For many years, Flores has been dubbed as a 'Polish Island' because of the presence of Polish priests and nuns," he said jokingly, referring to a predominantly Catholic island in the eastern part of Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim country.
To support its goal to enhance ties with Asia, Poland has established an institute of Oriental studies, overseen by the state-run University of Warsaw, focussing on "intercivilization relations". Besides conducting a study on Buddhism, Confucianism and Islam, the institute also gives the students lessons on Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and Korean languages.
"We intended to also teach the Indonesian language, but we had to put it off due to a lack of expertise and limited funds," Professor Krzysztof Maria Byrski, the institute's former director, told The Jakarta Post.
In Warsaw, there is also the Asia and Pacific Museum, set up by former diplomat Andrzej Wawrzyniak, that provides more than 12,000 books, periodicals, slides and video cassettes on Asian cultures and arts.
Poland's intention to revitalize its relations with Asia seems to be well reciprocated by Asian leaders in the fact that Japanese Emperor Akihito, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad visited Warsaw earlier this year, while Singaporean Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong did likewise last year.
This reflects how Asia considers the importance of Poland -- a developing nation by Western European standards -- and its role in the international arena in linking Asia and a unified Europe, a vast market with a population of around 500 million
Besides, Poland's peaceful transition from decades of communist authoritarian rule to democracy in 1990 may well be treated as an exemplary study for fledgling democracies in Asia.
The best description of today's Poland, perhaps, is given by Norman Davies, a celebrated political scientist of the London University, who, in his book Heart of Europe: The Past in Poland's Present, wrote that Poland "provides a wonderful example of how human spirit can triumph over prolonged adversity. In this sense, Poland can only be regarded as a great asset to Europe, at whose heart it has always lain."
Closer partnership with Asia, doubtless, will also make Poland become part of the Asian asset in the region's international policy.