Lithuania–Poland border


The current Lithuania–Poland border has existed since the re-establishment of the independence of Lithuania on March 11, 1990. Until then the identical border was between Poland and the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic of the Soviet Union. The length of the border is. It runs from the Lithuania–Poland–Russia tripoint southeast to the Belarus–Lithuania–Poland tripoint.
It is the only land border that the European Union- and NATO-member Baltic states share with a country that is not a member of the Russian-aligned Commonwealth of Independent States.

History

The current Lithuania–Poland border has existed since the re-establishment of the independence of Lithuania on March 11, 1990. That border was established in the aftermath of World War II. Until then the identical border was between Poland and Lithuanian SSR of the Soviet Union. A different border existed between the Second Polish Republic and Lithuania in the period of 1918–1939. Following the Polish–Lithuanian border conflict, from 1922 onward it was stable, and had a length of 521 km. During the partitions of Poland era, there were borders between the Congress Poland and Lithuanian lands of the Russian Empire. From the Union of Lublin to the partitions, there was no Polish-Lithuanian border, as both countries were a part of a single federated entity, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In medieval times, the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania shared yet another border.
Lithuania and Poland joined the Schengen Area in 2007. This meant that all passport checks were removed along the border in December 2007.

Military significance

To the military planners of NATO, the border area is known as the Suwalki gap, because it represents a tough-to-defend flat narrow piece of land, a gap, that is between Belarus and Russia's Kaliningrad exclave and that connects the NATO-member Baltic States to Poland and the rest of NATO. This view was reflected in a 2017 NATO exercise, which for the first time focused on defense of the gap from a possible Russian attack.

Former border crossings

In the period 1991–2007, there were three road and one rail border crossing between Poland and Lithuania.
On May 1, 2004, when both Poland and Lithuania joined the European Union, this border became an internal border of the European Union. On 21 December 2007, Poland and Lithuania acceded to the Schengen Agreement. After this, crossing the border became easier, as EU internal borders are open to all traffic with little need for control. There are still, however, occasional customs and police controls against smuggling of restricted goods, which however affect only about 1% of travelers.
Road
Rail