Berlin Sends Note Saying No Plans for Negotiations With Poland on War Reparations - Warsaw

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The German government has informed the Polish side in a diplomatic note that it is not intending to negotiate with Warsaw on wartime reparations from Berlin, the Polish Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.

"On 28 December 2022, Germany’s Federal Foreign Office replied to Polish MFA’s note of 3 October 2022. The note was delivered to Polish MFA on 3 January 2023. According to the German Government, the issue of reparations and compensation for war losses remains closed and the German Government does not intend to launch negotiations in this regard," the ministry said on the website.

The ministry added that "the Government of the Republic of Poland will continue its efforts to receive the amounts due resulting from German aggression and occupation in 1939-1945."

Ties between Poland and Germany have been strained by Warsaw's repeated claims to war damages. Warsaw estimates its losses caused by Nazi occupation during the Second World War at 6.2 trillion zlotys ($1.36 trillion). Berlin argues that the Polish government had relinquished all demands for reparations under the 1953 deal.

On Tuesday, Arkadiusz Mularczyk, a senior official spearheading Poland’s demands for wartime reparations from Germany, said that Warsaw had asked the United Nations for help in receiving war reparations from Berlin. In December, Poland had already made similar appeals to the Council of Europe and UN cultural agency UNESCO.