Kształtowanie instytucjonalnych stosunków polsko-litewskich w latach 1996–1998: partnerstwo strategiczne

In 1992–1994 the most important treaty documents between Poland and Lithuania were set and the cooperation started. Next years brought a lot of different forms of Polish-Lithuanian cooperation on various levels. The aim of the article is to present the range of relationship between the two countries in 1996–1998. At that time the states had common objectives in their foreign policy, the most important being the entering the NATO and EU. Mutual relationships of that time were called the best in the history of those countries. Since 1997 the strategic partnership was underlined, which could be best seen in the documents and public speeches of the most important politicians of both countries, and also in the international activities. The main source of information were the documents prepared by the representatives of the countries, including the contracts, arrangements and agreements. During the discussed period the new structures of cooperation were established on various levels of authorities: Polish Lithuanian Parliamentary Assembly, The Advisory Committee of the Presidents of the Polish Republic and the Lithuanian Republic, The Council for the Cooperation between the Governments of the Polish Republic and the Lithuanian Republic, the common Forum of the Local Governments and others. Some structures of the transborder cooperation were established at that time, too (The Polish-Lithuanian Committee for Transborder Cooperation, the “Niemen” Euroregion, the “Baltic See” Euroregion), the military cooperation was initiated, the economical contacts were developed (The Polish-Lithuanian Chamber of Economics). The agreements included the customs and border matters, people exchange, educational and cultural issues and many more.