Geopolitical Importance of the Intermarium in Polish-Turkish Relations

Currently, the Republic of Türkiye increasingly claims to be a regional leader and simultaneously tries to strengthen its influence on world politics using its advantageous geopolitical position at the crossroads of important international roads. For historical reasons, Poland occupies a unique place on the map of Europe. It is a regional centre of political contacts, a state integrating with the West and open to cooperation with the East, and having a real opportunity to modify these relations precisely because of its geopolitical potential. Türkiye and Poland remain hostages of geopolitics and history in their respective regions. It is also evidenced by the activity, goals, and interests of the foreign policy pursued by these countries. Nevertheless, one of the current geopolitical projects implemented by Poland in Europe is the “Intermarium”. It is a bloc of anti-Russian states in the area from the Baltic to the Black Sea. In front of this reality, it is substantial to pose the following question: Why does Türkiye need the Intermarium bloc? Although Türkiye does not officially appear to be in this union, it is certain that it is in a state of cooperation. Türkiye is trying to establish a South-North economic-military axis in the Black Sea-Baltic region. Parallelly, Ankara sells weapons, such as Bayraktar TB2 attack UAVs, to Poland and Ukraine. Also, Türkiye signs military agreements with these countries. The study analyses the improvement of the Polish geopolitical idea of Intermarium. Furthermore, it deals with the role that Türkiye will play in the Intermarium project.

Military Cooperation of the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China

Since the 1990s, China and Russia have been increasingly strengthening their military cooperation. It includes selling Russian weapons to China and working on joint arms projects, joint exercises, and recently also joint air and sea patrols in the North Pacific. Even the Russian attack on Ukraine did not break the military ties connecting the two countries. One may even get the impression that this event gave a new impulse to tighten military relations, at least in their political dimension, between China and Russia. This rapprochement can be explained by the fact that both countries are strongly involved in building a new, multipolar international order and strive to weaken the international position of the US. In this context, there is even talk of a military alliance between China and Russia.