“In a symbolic way we dissociate ourselves from the treaty, recognizing that it is a document of exclusively archival nature (…) We put an end to any international activity of this document,” said Deputy Minister Piotr Wawrzyk during the handing-over ceremony. The event at the MFA headquarters was an occasion to exhibit, apart from the 1955 treaty, documents from 1991 that dissolved the military and political cooperation structures established among former socialist states in Europe as a result of the Warsaw Pact. The documents included:

- the Protocol on repealing military agreements concluded under the Warsaw Pact and on disbanding its military bodies and structures, signed in Budapest on 25 February 1991;

- the Protocol on the expiry of the Treaty of friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance and of the Protocol on extending its validity, signed in Prague on 1 July 1991.

During the event journalists had the opportunity to take photos of the documents, usually not made available to the public.

 

 

***

The Warsaw Pact was a political and military organisation created on the basis of the Treaty of friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance signed on 14 May 1955. Established at the initiative of the USSR, the Pact aimed to unify foreign and military policy of the USSR and its satellite states. As a result, it became a structure which enabled the USSR to control the military forces and defence policy of the Warsaw Pact member states.

Political transformation processes that the Pact’s member states underwent after 1989 changed its  character and structure and forced the USSR to abandon its political and military doctrine. The military and political structures of the Warsaw Pact were dissolved in 1991.

 

MFA Press Office

Photo: Tymon Markowski / MFA