Polish People's Republic-Federal Republic of Germany Treaty of 1970 on

Polish People’s Republic-Federal Republic of Germany Treaty of 1970 on Normalizing Relations 

a treaty signed on December 7 in Warsaw by J. Cyrankiewicz, chairman of the Council of Ministers, and S. Jędrychowski, minister of foreign affairs, for the PPR, and by W. Brandt, federal chancellor, and W. Scheel, foreign minister, for the FRG. It entered into force on June 3, 1972.

The preamble declares that the parties arrived at agreement on the terms of the treaty “acknowledging that the inviolability of frontiers and respect for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of all states in Europe in their present borders is the basic condition of peace.” The treaty states that the existing boundary line defined by the Potsdam Conference of 1945 (along the Oder and Neisse rivers) constitutes the western state frontier of the PPR. Both parties reaffirmed the inviolability of their existing frontiers now and in the future. They declared that they had no territorial claims whatsoever against each other and that they would not assert such claims in the future. They pledged to settle all their disputes exclusively by peaceful means and to refrain from any threat or use of force in matters affecting international security and in their mutual relations. The treaty commits the contracting parties to take further steps toward full normalization and a comprehensive development of their mutual relations and proclaims the parties’ agreement to broaden their cooperation in the sphere of economic, scientific, technological, cultural, and other relations. It is stated that the treaty does not affect any bilateral or multilateral arrangements previously concluded by the contracting parties.

PUBLICATION

Mezhdunarodnaia zhizn’, 1973, no. 2.