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Poland is prepared to close its border with Belarus for security reasons, a deputy minister said on Tuesday.
Poland has already placed restrictions on Belarusian truckers after Minsk banned Polish hauliers from entering Belarus from Lithuania and Latvia. Polish lorry drivers can only cross the border from Poland.
“If need be, especially if security considerations require it, we will certainly be prepared to do it,” Pawel Jablonski, a deputy foreign minister, said when he was asked during a radio interview if Poland would close its border with Belarus entirely.
Belarus imposed the restrictions in response to Poland’s earlier closure of the Polish-Belarusian border checkpoint at Bobrowniki.
On Monday, the Polish interior ministry said it was responding to the Belarusian restrictions with its own restrictions for Belarusian hauliers on the Kukuryki-Kozlowicze crossing between the two countries.
The tit-for-tat moves reflect a tense diplomatic relationship between Belarus and Poland.