You're reading: Poland’s first post-communist foreign minister dies

WARSAW, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Krzysztof Skubiszewski, Poland's first post-communist foreign minister who helped set the country on the path to eventual NATO and European Union membership, died on Monday aged 83.

Skubiszewski served as foreign minister in four successive governments from 1989, when Poland toppled communism, until 1993.

He helped to improve ties between Poland and a newly reunited Germany with an accord confirming their shared border.

Poland also acquired three new neighbours on its eastern border during Skubiszewski’s term in office — Lithuania, Ukraine and Belarus — as the Soviet Union collapsed.

Skubiszewski oversaw the launch of talks with NATO and the EU which ended with Poland joining both groups, in 1999 and 2004 respectively.