Qatar has supplied up to 30 percent of Poland’s LNG, establishing the Gulf state as a significant energy ally for Poland.
Qatar’s Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani is heading to Poland for an official visit where he is scheduled to hold bilateral talks with Polish President Andrzej Duda.
The Amiri Diwan confirmed Sheikh Tamim’s departure to Poland from Kazakhstan on Thursday, where he participated at the annual Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit.
President Duda had met Sheikh Tamim in Doha in May on the sidelines of the fourth edition of the Qatar Economic Forum. The discussions at the time involved Doha and Warsaw’s bilateral ties and “issues of common interest”, including Israel’s ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.
Qatar-Poland’s relations
Doha and Warsaw established diplomatic ties in 1989.
In 2002, the Father Amir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, who was Qatar’s leader at the time, became the first head of a Gulf state to visit Poland.
Then in 2009, Qatar and Poland signed a 20-year liquified natural gas contract stipulating the annual delivery of 1 million tonnes of LNG from Doha to the European country starting from 2016.
Subsequently, another agreement was signed in 2017 to increase the delivery volume to 2.1 million tonnes per annum, starting from 2018.
Since the initial agreement, Qatar has supplied up to 30 percent of Poland’s LNG, establishing the Gulf state as a significant energy ally for Poland.
In 2011, the Qatar-Polish Business Council (QPBC) was established in collaboration with Poland’s embassy in Doha, under an agreement between the Qatar Central Bank and the National Bank of Poland.
The QPBC has annually organised the Qatar-Poland New Tech Forum, set for its fifth edition in Warsaw this Friday. This event plays a pivotal role in showcasing Poland’s technology and telecommunications sector, which contributes eight percent to the country’s GDP and employs over 250,000 individuals.
Beyond economic ties, Qatar and Poland have bolstered their political relations through annual political consultations since 2014, involving their foreign ministers.
Security cooperation has also been significant, notably when Poland joined Western allies in security operations during the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, marking a historic event hosted in an Arab and Muslim country for the first time.
