You're reading: Russia: Medvedev visit to Poland new chapter

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Russia's ambassador said Thursday that President Dmitry Medvedev's upcoming visit will open a new chapter in relations with Poland.

Medvedev is due in Warsaw Dec. 6 and 7 for talks with Poland’s President Bronislaw Komorowski and Prime Minister Donald Tusk. The nations are to sign a number of economic agreements.

Ambassador Alexey Alexeyev told a briefing that the visit will be a "very big event" and will open a "new chapter in Russian-Polish relations."

Russia is seeking to modernize its economy and a key agreement will focus on cooperation with Poland. Other agreements aim to strengthen cooperation in sea transport, and in fighting pollution of the Baltic Sea.

Alexeyev said that modernization changes are needed in all walks of life in Russia, including in the daily life of society or in the role of non-governmental organizations. He expressed hope that Poland could use its strong knowledge of Russia to help in all of these efforts.

Alexeyev noted a rapid growth in trade between the two countries of $15 billion so far this year — a jump of more than 40 percent on last. He said with most of the volume coming from Poland’s imports of Russian gas and oil, an intensification in sales of Polish goods to Russia should help redress the imbalance.

In the talks next week, Polish leaders are sure to raise a number of grudges rooted in the World War II, expected to include an analysis of all documents concerning the 1940 massacre of more than 20,000 Polish army officers by the Soviet NKVD in the forest of Katyn and other locations in the former Soviet Union.

Moscow has made some of the documents available and said it is working on having the others declassified for the needs of Poland’s historians.

Historically, ties became icy after Poland shed communism and Moscow’s dominance in 1989 and joined NATO and the European Union. However, sympathy expressed in Russia after Polish president Lech Kaczynski died there in a plane crash this year has accelerated a thaw.

Russian and Polish investigators are seeking the cause of the crash in separate probes and their efforts are also expected to be a theme of talks.