German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has been welcomed with military honours to Warsaw by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, marking the start of the first German-Polish government consultations since 2018.

Scholz travelled to Poland with 12 federal and state ministers. According to government sources in Berlin, the consultations should provide “a strong impetus” for good neighbourly relations.

A joint German-Polish action plan including several projects is expected to be agreed.

Berlin is expected to present a financial package for Poland. It is expected to include compensation payments for living Polish victims of the occupation by Nazi Germany as well as German aid for the defence of NATO’s eastern flank.

In addition, money is to be channelled into the construction of the German-Polish House in Berlin. The house is intended to commemorate the complicated German-Polish history and the brutal German occupation during World War II (1939-45) and create a place of remembrance for the Polish victims of the war.