Wednesday, July 07, 2010

Bilateral Relations: Medvedev - relations with Poland priority in Russia's foreign policy

Dmitry Medvedev, Poland, Russia mike hitchen onlineFOCUS Information Agency - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday congratulated Bronislaw Komorowski with winning the Polish presidential election and vowed to develop relations with Poland, RIa Novosti reports.

With 100% of the ballots counted, Komorowski, a moderate member of the governing Civic Platform party, garnered 53.01% of the vote cast on Sunday and his presidential runoff contender, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of the conservative Law and Justice party, received 46.99%.

"The development of mutually beneficial and constructive Russian-Polish relations in political, economic, humanitarian and other spheres is one of the priorities of Russian foreign policy," Medvedev said in a telegram to Komorowski.

"I am ready to continue joint work with you and [continue] regular dialogue to expand all-embracing cooperation between Russia and Poland, to strengthen stability and security in Europe. I wish you, Mr. President, health and success on the supreme state post, and prosperity and well-being to the Polish people," he added.

Poland held the first round of early elections on June 20 and Komorowski narrowly took first place with 41.54%. The polls were forced by President Lech Kaczynski's death in an air crash in western Russia in April.