Poland-Belarus Border Closure Disrupts China-EU Rail Trade
(MENAFN) Poland’s abrupt closure of its border with Belarus has effectively frozen a vital €25 billion rail freight corridor between China and the European Union, media reported, triggering immediate disruptions across time-sensitive supply chains, including medicine and food shipments.
Warsaw attributed the shutdown to military exercises conducted by Russia and Belarus between September 12–16. The "Zapad-2025" drills, which were observed by delegations from the U.S., India, and others, are staged every four years and took place near Poland’s eastern border. Polish officials described the maneuvers as “very aggressive” and executed “very close to the Polish border.”
Moscow has defended the exercises, saying they were intended to simulate repelling foreign attacks and were informed by battlefield experience in Ukraine.
The border closure intensifies long-standing tensions in EU-China relations, already strained by disputes over tariffs, subsidies, and security threats. The impacted freight line has served as a flagship conduit for Beijing’s trade and diplomatic outreach to Europe, particularly through Poland.
Despite last-minute diplomatic efforts, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who traveled to Warsaw on Monday, failed to persuade Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski to reopen the route. According to Politico, citing Polish foreign affairs spokesman Pawel Wronski, Sikorski told his Chinese counterpart that “the logic of trade” had been overtaken by “the logic of security.”
Warsaw emphasized that Beijing made no explicit demands to lift the blockade.
The European Commission has acknowledged the closure and is “monitoring the potential fallout,” but said it is “too early to go into further detail.”
Meanwhile, Piotr Krawczyk, former head of Poland’s Foreign Intelligence Agency, suggested that Washington may be tacitly supporting Poland’s decision. “I’m quite sure Washington is more than happy to see the routes closed – at least temporarily,” Krawczyk said, noting ongoing U.S. pressure on Brussels to increase tariffs on Chinese goods linked to Russian energy imports.
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