Poland Plans to Build Baltic Sea Canal to Bypass Russia

John Smithies
By John Smithies
September 26, 2018World News
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Poland Plans to Build Baltic Sea Canal to Bypass Russia
Polish President Andrzej Duda (R) and the leader of PiS (Law and Justice) party Jaroslaw Kaczynski attend the prime minister's nomination ceremony, on Nov. 13, 2015, in Warsaw Poland. (Janek Skarzynski/AFP/Getty Images)

Poland is planning to construct a new canal so that its ships no longer have to pass through Russian waters to get to the open sea.

The country is pressing ahead with the plans in order to cut Russia’s influence over the country, lawmaker Jaroslaw Kaczynski said.

“It is important for Poland’s status,” Kaczynski said in a radio interview, according to the Daily Telegraph.

“In the end Poland needs to shed the last traces of being a dependent state. We need to show that the times Russia dictated what we could or not do on our territory are over,” Kaczynski said.

Map of proposed canal between Poland and the Baltic Sea
(Tom Ozimek/The Epoch Times)

The canal is intended to be dug through a thin strip of land between the Vistula Lagoon and the Baltic Sea on Poland’s northeast coast.

Currently, Polish ships exiting the lagoon from the port of Elblag are forced to sail through Russian waters before they get to the open sea.

The canal will be 1,100 yards long and 16 feet deep and is expected to be completed by 2022.

Russia has complained to the European Commission that it has not been consulted about the canal and that its construction could damage the ecosystem in the lagoon.

However, Kaczynski said that Russia has “always been opposed” to the canal and that its complaints were an “attempt to block this strategic investment for Poland.”

Poland Praised by Trump

The day before Kaczynski’s remarks, U.S. President Donald Trump praised Poland for its efforts to decrease its reliance on Russia, particularly with regard to energy.

Russia’s Gazprom and its European partners are developing the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, designed to double natural gas volumes pumped from Russia to Germany via the Baltic Sea, avoiding the traditional transit route through Ukraine.

“Reliance on a single foreign supplier can leave nations vulnerable to extortion and intimidation and that is why we congratulate European states such as Poland for leading construction of a Baltic pipeline so that nations are not dependent on Russia to meet their energy needs,” Trump said in a speech at the United Nations General Assembly.

Most eastern European states and the United States argue the proposed Russian pipeline could ultimately limit supply routes and the energy security of the European Union, as well as hurting Ukraine’s efforts to reform its economy as bypassing the country would deprive it of billions of dollars in gas transit fees.

The Baltic pipeline is planned to provide Denmark and Poland with direct access to Norway’s gas fields, expanding Europe’s gas transmission capacity by up to 10 billion cubic meters per year. It would be completed by the end of 2022 and a final decision on investment is expected at the end of this year.

Poland has also called on the United States to help counter Russian aggression by building a permanent military base in Poland.

Trump said at a news conference alongside Polish President Andrzej Duda on Sept. 18 that the new base would be called Fort Trump.

U.S. President Donald Trump in front of the Warsaw Uprising Monument in Poland
U.S. President Donald Trump in front of the Warsaw Uprising Monument on Krasinski Square during the Three Seas Initiative Summit in Warsaw, Poland on July 6, 2017. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)

“We will enhance cooperation in military relations and intelligence, missile defense, technology, and training,” Trump said.

The proposal from the Polish defense department was first uncovered in late May and asserts that Poland is willing to contribute up to $2 billion to pay for the new base.

The plan would see 15,000 U.S. troops and 250 armored vehicles deployed in Poland, a move that could provoke ire from Russia.

The proposal stated, “Establishing such a force is necessary to present an unequivocal challenge and deterrence to Russia’s increasingly emboldened and dangerous posture that threatens Europe.”

However, a Russian spokesman told Tass news agency that “these expansionist steps, certainly, result in counteractions of the Russian side to balance the parity, which is violated every time this way.”

Reuters contributed to this report.

From The Epoch Times

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