Poland became a full member of NATO in March 1999, and of the European Union in May 2004. Poland promoted its NATO candidacy through energetic participation in the Partnership for Peace (PfP) program and through intensified individual dialogue between Poland and NATO. Poland was invited in the first wave of NATO enlargement at the July 1997 NATO Summit in Madrid.

Poland also has forged ahead on its economic reintegration with the West. Poland became an associate member of the European Union (EU) and its defensive arm, the Western European Union (WEU) in 1994. In 1996 Poland achieved full OECD membership and submitted preliminary documentation for full EU membership. Poland joined the European Union in 2004, along with the other members of the Visegrád group.

Changes since 1989 have redrawn the map of central Europe, and Poland has had to forge relationships with seven new neighbors. Poland has actively pursued good relations with all its neighbors, signing friendship treaties replacing links severed by the collapse of the Warsaw Pact. The Poles have forged special relationships with Lithuania and particularly Ukraine in an effort to firmly anchor these states to the West.

Disputes - international: none

Illicit drugs: major illicit producer of amphetamines for the international market; minor transshipment point for Asian and Latin American illicit drugs to Western Europe