Polish PM mulls asking NATO to hold talks amid border crisis

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland, Lithuania and Latvia are considering asking NATO to hold emergency talks as they struggle to manage a tense migration standoff on their borders with Belarus, the Polish prime minister said Sunday.

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said he and his counterparts for the two Baltic states are discussing whether to ask for such talks under Article 4 of the NATO treaty, which allows any ally to request consultations if it feels its territorial integrity, political independence or security is threatened.

Still, it's a step that has only been taken a few times in the history of the Western alliance.

The authoritarian Belarusian regime in Minsk has for months been orchestrating a flow of migrants across its border into the three European Union nations, which form the eastern flank of both the EU and NATO. They have been reinforcing their borders, seeking to block the newly opened migration route.

A deputy interior minister from Poland said Sunday that more migrants are arriving near the Polish border crossing of Kuźnica from the Belarusian side. The ministry released a video showing Polish police warning people at the border: “Attention, Attention, if you don't follow the orders, force may be used against you.”

The situation has been going on for months, but suddenly grew more tense as a large group of migrants appeared across the border from Kuźnica nearly a week ago.

In an interview with the state news agency PAP, Morawiecki vowed that Poland's border with Belarus “will be an effective and final barrier” to actions by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

“There is no doubt that things have gone too far,” Morawiecki said.

The EU accuses Lukashenko of encouraging the migrants from the Mideast to breech the borders in retaliation for...