WARSAW, July 1 (Xinhua) -- The Polish government retains the position that the issue of potential war reparations from Germany is still on the table, the country's Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau said Thursday during the visit to Warsaw of his German counterpart Heiko Maas.
Rau said at a joint press conference that the destruction and loss of life caused by German actions during World War II is beyond doubt. "The issue is still not settled," Rau said.
Maas said in turn that there is no question of war reparations, arguing that Germany is fully aware of its historical responsibility and that it has paid out individual reparations, including to Poles. "The reparations issue is closed from the legal and political perspective," he said.
Maas noted that the Bundestag (lower house of Germany's Parliament) has decided to open a place of memory and commemoration for the Polish victims of World War II.
Leading politicians and officials within Poland's conservative government repeatedly suggested demanding reparations from Germany, with the governing Law and Justice party ordering a parliamentary report on the issue in 2017. The report has not been published yet. The head of the parliamentary commission preparing it said in April it was "99 percent done," after similar comments in 2019 and 2020.
