Polish President Sees No Military Threat From Migration Crisis

BRUSSELS (Sputnik) - Polish President Andrzej Duda said he did not see an immediate military threat due to the migration crisis on the border with Belarus.

"We, of course, with NATO Secretary-General and allies take into account the possibility of using Article 4 [Article 4 of the NATO Treaty provides for the possibility of convening the NATO Council if one of NATO countries considers that there is a threat to its security], but we want to use it only when the situation requires it. Now the situation does not meet the qualifications of Article 4. There is no immediate military threat, there is no military attack on any neighbouring country," Duda said after meeting with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday in Brussels.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg believes that Poland was coping with the migration crisis at its borders without the direct participation of NATO.

"Poland is effectively defending itself from the cynical and inhumane actions of Belorussian regime without NATO direct involvement," he said at a joint press conference in Brussels with Polish President Andrzej Duda.

At the same time, he said that the allies were in solidarity with Poland and were ready to consider requests for support if such appear.

Meanwhile, thousands of migrants from the Middle East, mostly Iraqi Kurds, continue to stay on the Belarusian-Polish border, unable to enter the EU since Warsaw does not allow them to. Poland blames the migrant crisis on Belarus but Minsk denies the allegation and says that it cannot handle the migrant flow due to Western sanctions. It says refugees were forced out of their home countries by the military operations the US and the EU had been carrying out in the past decades.