After almost two weeks of standstill, Poland will reopen its borders with Belarus tomorrow, 25 September at midnight, allowing the restart of rail freight traffic between Europe and Asia. The border has been closed since 12 September, and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk did not exclude the possibility of doing it again, if the circumstances require it.
Poland claimed it shut down its borders for security reasons after Russian-Belarusian military exercises, which went on until 16 September. Tusk decided to keep them closed for longer, with a significant impact on China-Europe rail freight. The border crossing in Małaszewicze is the main gateway into the Old Continent for trains coming from Asia.
Having it closed led to dozens of trains being stuck in Belarus, sparking concerns from various industry players. Now, they can take a sigh of relief and freight trains can start moving again. “I am very happy to see the final decision of our Prime Minister and hope it will never happen again”, said Pawel Moskala, owner of Real Logistics, on LinkedIn.
