In a meeting in Bydgoszcz , Poland, last week, the foreign ministers of France, Germany and Poland agreed to an ambitious programme that includes pushing for tougher sanctions against Belarus, and for the European Union to establish its own civil and military planning headquarters independent of NATO.

The Foreign Ministers Alain Juppé of France, Guido Westerwelle of Germany and Radek Sikorski of Poland interspersed bonhomie with frank talk, showing how much relations have improved among the countries, after a past based on enmity and distrust.

The ministers said a European should be the next managing director of the International Monetary Fund after the resignation of Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
They also agreed that President Barack Obama’s speech delivered on Thursday on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict showed a link between changes sweeping the Middle East and a resolution to that intractable problem.

“The United States cannot do it alone,” Mr. Juppé said. “Europe must help.”
Mr. Westerwelle said: “The peace process affects what is happening in the Middle East. And what is happening in the Middle East affects the peace process.”

In another meeting, now in Klainingrad, Mr. Sikorski and Mr. Westerwelle for the first time held a trilateral meeting with their Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov. The meeting in Kaliningrad was part of an effort by the three countries to work together over political, security, energy and visa issues, and was viewed as a significant improvement in relations between Germany, Poland and Russia.

The Weimar Triangle
The meeting in Bydgoszcz was held under the umbrella of the Weimar Triangle, named after the city of Weimar, a jewel of a cultural center in southeastern Germany. The group was set up 20 years ago at the initiative of the German government to foster a deep reconciliation with Poland akin to what France and Germany did after 1945.
Poland, set to take over the six-month rotating European Union presidency in June, is showing more self-confidence, evident in its influential voice regarding Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.

Mr. Sikorski and Mr. Westerwelle called unacceptable the recent crackdown and trials of opposition leaders in Belarus who held peaceful protests in December against the fraudulent presidential elections. Mr. Sikorski said Poland, France and Germany would press their E.U. partners in Brussels on Monday to impose tougher sanctions against the Belarussian leadership.

At the same time they would support as much as possible independent, democratic movements and organizations.
Poland already provides financial assistance to Belarussians studying in Poland because their political activities prevent their doing so at home. And Poland finances Belsat, the independent television station that is based in Warsaw and broadcasts news and current affairs into Belarus.

The three ministers also agreed that the European Union should have its own civil and military planning headquarters. When the idea was first presented by Germany, France, Belgium and Luxembourg in 2003, when all four countries opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, it was staunchly rejected, not only by the United States but also by Poland and other East European countries.

Opponents of the idea said at the time that an E.U. planning headquarters would be a competitor to NATO and eventually would lead to the loosening of the trans-Atlantic alliance. Now, however, Poland increasingly sees Europe in need of a stronger security and defense policy, with its own civil and military planning headquarters, as the United States expects it to pull its weight in defense and security matters.

Meeting in Kaliningrad
Mr. Sikorski and Mr. Westerwelle travelled to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad after the Bydgoszcz meeting, where for the first time they would hold a trilateral meeting with their Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov. The meeting in Kaliningrad was part of an effort by the three countries to work together over political, security, energy and visa issues, and was viewed as a significant improvement in relations between Germany, Poland and Russia.
Russia is seeking assurances from NATO that any missile defense system the military alliance deploys in Europe will not be directed against the country.

“We do not want any missiles aimed at Russia, and we want some kind of written guarantees from NATO that the missiles will not threaten Russia,” Lavrov, said after the talks.

 “This is about cooperation, not confrontation, about discussing concrete projects,” Mr. Westerwelle told hundreds of students at Kant University who had gathered to question the three officials.
Russia has in the past threatened to place missiles in Kaliningrad — a small area with a population of nearly one million that is sandwiched between two European Union countries, Poland and Lithuania — in response to NATO’s plans to deploy part of its missile shield in Eastern Europe.

Shift in U.S. strategy
President Obama, who is to visit Poland next week, intends to deploy Patriot missiles there, but not the original missile shield system that the administration of President George W. Bush had promised to do. The Bush administration’s plans to place parts of the missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic, which were once part of the Soviet military alliance, led to a sharp deterioration of relations between Washington and Moscow. The Russian prime minister, Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, has said that such deployments would undermine Russia’s security.

Mr. Obama’s decision to shift strategy was not only because of the costs and the need to modify the scope of any missile defense system that would provide a much broader security umbrella over Europe. The administration said it also wanted to “reset” its relations with Russia.

During Saturday’s discussions, the ministers agreed that their meeting could evolve into something more permanent — like the Weimar Triangle, which the French, German and Polish foreign ministers set up 20 years ago after the reunification of Germany. The Weimar Triangle helped to lead to reconciliation between Poland and Germany, ending decades of enmity and distrust.

Mr. Lavrov acknowledged that Russia could not ignore Poland’s new role on the Continent, now that it is a member of the European Union and it is scheduled to take over the rotating EU presidency the 1st of July.

The three officials also discussed Belarus. Poland and Germany, with support from France, want European foreign ministers to impose more sanctions against Belarus. The sanctions, already imposed on the top leadership, could be extended to some enterprise managers. At the same time, Poland and Germany intend to strengthen their ties to civil society and the democratic opposition.

Russia, however, said it opposed more sanctions. “This will only lead to further isolation,” Mr. Lavrov said. “That will do nothing to help the way towards direction.”