Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk met with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Defense Minister A.K. Antony in New Delhi last month while Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi visited Poland around the same time to meet with Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski. In an e-mail interview, Patryk Kugiel, an analyst at the Polish Institute of International Affairs, explains the context for recent developments in Poland-South Asia relations.
WPR: What have Poland's ties with Asia in general and South Asia in particular been historically?
Patryk Kugiel: Poland's first links with South Asia date back to the 16th century, but significant contacts were not recorded until World War II, when British India sheltered thousands of Polish women and children "released" with the Polish Army from Soviet Siberia. After the partition, Poland established diplomatic relations with independent India in 1954 and with Pakistan six years later.