Polish deputy foreign minister Władysław Teofil Bartoszewski has reaffirmed Warsaw’s support for the Philippines over the 2016 South China Sea arbitral ruling, arguing that ignoring international tribunals would create a precedent in which stronger states could simply impose their will on weaker ones.
Speaking in a one-on-one interview with ABS-CBN News in Manila, Bartoszewski said Poland accepted the ruling and backed its enforcement.
“According to international law and principles, that is the case. So yes, we stand behind the Philippines, and we accept this order,” he said.
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He added that if international tribunals were treated as irrelevant and states were allowed to break the law “and do whatever we wish, you create chaos”.
The remarks place Poland clearly behind Manila’s legal position in the South China Sea dispute and underline how Warsaw increasingly frames security in Europe and the Indo-Pacific as connected rather than separate.
Bartoszewski explicitly linked the issue to Russia’s war against Ukraine.
“Should Russia manage to take over Ukraine, as Putin intended, what will happen in South China Sea, Taiwan Straits, and other parts of the Indo-Pacific?” he said.
“So all of a sudden, we see that one war has impact on the very faraway region. Once you see that you can take by force a sovereign state and get away with this, people start getting ideas.”
His comments reflect a broader Polish foreign-policy argument that challenges to sovereignty and territorial integrity in one region can affect calculations elsewhere.
That position has featured in Poland’s recent engagement with Asian partners. The Polish foreign ministry said this month that Bartoszewski’s talks with Indonesian officials covered both European security and the Indo-Pacific, while Poland formally joined the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia in July as part of efforts to deepen its regional presence.
Bartoszewski said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had also brought Poland politically closer to countries including the Philippines, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
“We believe that a world should be run according to international law-based order and not creating spheres of influence that the stronger can dictate to the weaker on what to do,” he said.
That argument gives the Manila interview a broader significance beyond Poland’s position on the 2016 award itself.
The arbitral ruling was issued following a case brought by the Philippines under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. It rejected the legal basis for China’s claim to historic rights over resources within much of the area covered by Beijing’s so-called nine-dash line.
The Philippines treats the ruling as final and binding. China rejects it and says the tribunal lacked jurisdiction.
Bartoszewski’s remarks are consistent with Poland’s previous support for the legal force of the award, but the interview is notable because the position was delivered directly in Manila by a senior Polish foreign-ministry official rather than through a broader EU statement.
China subsequently protested against his remarks through its embassy in the Philippines, saying Poland was not a party to the dispute and should stop supporting the award.
That reaction is secondary to the main development: Poland’s direct reaffirmation in Manila that it backs the Philippines’ legal position.
First Polish presidential visit to the Philippines planned
Bartoszewski also said his trip was largely intended to prepare what he described as the first visit by a Polish president to the Philippines, due to take place later this year.
“My trip was also devoted, or mainly devoted to the preparation of the visit, first ever visit of a Polish president in the Philippines, which will take place later this year,” he said.
He said discussions covered political and economic issues as well as agriculture, energy, digital affairs, defence, security, maritime security and culture.
The planned presidential visit would mark another step in a relationship that has been expanding beyond traditional diplomatic contacts.
Polish and Philippine officials have already identified security, military cooperation, defence industries, ports, ICT and economic ties as areas for closer cooperation. Previous bilateral consultations in Warsaw also highlighted the potential for expanding defence-industry links.
Economic contacts have also grown. The Polish Investment and Trade Agency has been running a series of Poland-Philippines investment dialogues involving public agencies and businesses from both countries, including events in Manila and Warsaw in 2026.
Defence cooperation could expand
Bartoszewski said Poland was also interested in developing its defence relationship with the Philippines following Manila’s acquisition of Polish-made S-70i Black Hawk helicopters.
He suggested that future cooperation could extend beyond the straightforward sale of military equipment to industrial partnerships and possible local production.
“We could always also look at the possibility of producing something in the Philippines, which becomes Filipino,” he said.
Such arrangements would represent a deeper form of defence cooperation, potentially involving joint ventures or production rather than purchases alone.
The Polish government has been seeking to expand defence-industrial cooperation across Asia more broadly. Bartoszewski recently held talks in India focused on defence production and closer industrial links, while Poland has also strengthened security engagement with Australia.
The Manila interview therefore covered more than the South China Sea dispute.
It presented a wider Polish approach to the Indo-Pacific built around support for international law, stronger security partnerships and deeper economic and defence ties.
The planned presidential visit later this year is expected to provide the next major test of how far that relationship can develop.
