Military drills near Warsaw have reportedly halted rail freight transportation, with Beijing urging calm and Brussels assessing risks
Trans-Eurasian trade faces new strain now that Poland has closed its border with Belarus, citing security concerns.
The closure disrupts a corridor which normally accounts for 90% of rail freight traffic between China and the EU, according to data published by Politico.
The decision to close the border is “related to the Russian-Belarusian ’Zapad-2025’ exercises,” the Polish foreign affairs ministry has said in a statement. The military exercises, held September 12–16, were part of regular large-scale drills staged by Moscow and Minsk roughly every four years.
Warsaw described the maneuvers as “very aggressive” and conducted “very close to the Polish border.” Moscow has said the exercises were designed to repel attacks, using lessons from the Ukraine conflict.
The border closure has disrupted a vital rail corridor which normally accounts for approximately €25 billion per year in freight traffic between China and the EU. All cargo is currently blocked, including time-sensitive shipments like medicine and food.
The closure compounds existing frictions over tariffs, subsidies, and security concerns that have long pressured EU–China trade ties.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi flew to Poland on Monday for talks with his Polish counterpart, Radoslaw Sikorski. Ahead of the meeting, Beijing had urged Warsaw to ensure the safe operation of the Belarus rail link — a “flagship project” of China’s cooperation with Poland and the EU.
However, Sikorski stressed that “the logic of trade” was being replaced by “the logic of security,” Politico reported, citing Polish foreign affairs spokesman Pawel Wronski. He noted that China made no direct demands to reopen the border.
The European Commission has said it is monitoring the potential fallout from the closure, adding that “it’s too early to go into further detail.”
Piotr Krawczyk, former head of Poland’s Foreign Intelligence Agency, suggested the US could be backing Warsaw “in not rushing to reopen it,” saying he is “quite sure Washington is more than happy to see the routes closed – at least temporarily.”
He pointed to Washington’s pressure on the EU to slap extra tariffs on China over its purchases of Russian energy.
