The Weimar Triangle (; ; ) is a regional alliance of France, Germany, and Poland created in 1991 in the German city of Weimar. The group is intended to promote co-operation between the three countries in cross-border and European issues.
It exists mostly in the form of summit meetings between the leaders of the three countries, and of their foreign ministers. The collaboration between member states includes inter-parliamentary contacts and military, scientific, and cultural cooperation.
History 1990s The Weimar Triangle was established in the German city of Weimar in 1991, aimed at assisting Poland's emergence from Communist rule. Attending the meeting were the Foreign Ministers of each state: Roland Dumas of France, Hans-Dietrich Genscher of Germany, and Krzysztof Skubiszewski of Poland. Genscher chose Weimar for the inaugural meeting because it was situated in former East Germany.Sarah Helm (23 May 1996), 'Weimar Triangle' takes shape for power The Independent.
At the 1992 meeting of the Weimar Triangle in France, Poland won agreement from Germany and France that it should have special association status at the Western European Union, the European arm of NATO.
2000s Apart from regular meetings of ministers of foreign affairs and occasional summits of the countries' leaders, no major changes or decisions were made in the first decade of the twenty-first century in the Weimar Triangle.
2010s At the 2011 summit hosted by President Bronisław Komorowski of Poland and attended by President Nicolas Sarkozy (France) and Chancellor Angela Merkel (Germany), the three leaders discussed issues of renewing regular Weimar Triangle meetings and improving relations with Russia (among other topics). Both Germany and France urged Poland to join the Pact for Competitiveness.
On 5 July 2011, France, Germany, and Poland signed an agreement in Brussels to put together a unit of 1,700 soldiers under Polish command, called the Weimar Battlegroup, that was to be ready to deploy in crisis zones starting in 2013. The operational command centre was to be based in Mont Valerien, located in a Paris suburb.AFP, Germany, France and Poland form EU battlegroup EUbusiness. Retrieved 5 July 2011.
Shortly after the referendum on the status of Crimea held on 16 March 2014, the chairpersons of the Weimar Triangle parliament's committees on foreign affairs – Elisabeth Guigou of France, Norbert Röttgen of Germany and Grzegorz Schetyna of Poland – visited Kyiv to express their countries’ firm support of the territorial integrity and the European integration of Ukraine.Weimar Triangle countries support the territorial integrity and European integration of Ukraine Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, press release of 11 April 2014. This was the first time that parliamentarians of the Weimar Triangle had ever made a joint trip to a third country.Parlamentarier des Weimarer Dreiecks: Röttgen, Guigou und Schetyna in Kiew Bundestag, press release of 8 April 2014.
In April 2016, Poland's foreign minister Witold Waszczykowski told daily newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza that the Weimar Triangle had lost its relevance for his country.Matthias Szczerbaniewicz (6 April 2016), "Weimarer Dreieck" beendet: Polens Abkehr vom alten Europa ZDF.
On 28 August 2016, representatives of the three countries vowed to "reinvigorate" the Weimar Triangle. German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the group would meet before the end of 2016, and French foreign minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said France would host a summit in November 2016. The stated reasoning for this reinvigoration were the decision of the United Kingdom to leave the European Union, as well as the ongoing European migrant crisis.
2020s On 8 February 2022, Presidents Emmanuel Macron, Andrzej Duda and Chancellor Olaf Scholz met in Berlin to discuss security cooperation in the face of the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian crisis. This was the first such trilateral meeting between the three heads of state or government in many years, and was seen as a step towards strengthening the Weimar Triangle format. At the meeting, Duda appealed for unity among European leaders saying that "We must show that we speak in one voice". Scholz stressed that any violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity was "unacceptable" and would have "far-reaching consequences for Russia in political, economic and geo-strategic dimensions" while President Macron reinforced France's determination to use diplomatic efforts which he said were "the only path to end the conflict around Ukraine." On 24 February the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine began.
On 12 June 2023, the leaders of the Weimar Triangle, Scholz, Macron and Duda met at the group's summit held in Paris to discuss a number of foreign policy issues the most important of which was the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The leaders reaffirmed their "unwavering support" for Ukraine and declared to assist the country in its defence efforts against Russia’s aggression politically, with humanitarian aid, financially and also by supplying arms. Among the topics discussed was also Ukraine’s future membership in the European Union and the NATO alliance.
On 27 June 2023, the German Minister of Finance Christian Lindner convened the first meeting of the finance ministers since 2017. The invasion of Ukraine was the reason for the revived interest in this format. Lindner, Bruno Le Maire and Magdalena Rzeczkowska discussed the union of their capital markets.
As the Fall of Avdiivka culminated, at the meeting of Weimar Triangle heads in Berlin on 12 February 2024 Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk hinted that his country might join the European Sky Shield Initiative project headed by Germany, notable especially in the wake of comments on the future of NATO by American presidential candidate Donald Trump. The foreign ministers, who also met that day in La Celle-Saint-Cloud, called amongst other things for a "Weimar of citizens", a "Weimar of youth", a "Weimar of excellence" and a "Weimar of culture".
On 15 March 2024, a summit of Weimar Triangle was held in Berlin with Macron, Scholz and Tusk in attendance. The leaders stressed that they remained united over their stance on Europe's response to Russia's war in Ukraine. The leaders also announced a "capacity coalition" to provide long-distance artillery to Ukraine would be established, while declaring to "never prompt escalation" there. Chancellor Scholz stated that the three countries wanted to make sure that Ukraine could be capable of defending itself against Russia's invasion. Other journalists were keen to quote Scholz as having said at the "hastily arranged summit" that a "coalition for long-range rocket artillery" was then formed and that "starting immediately, we will procure even more weapons for Ukraine, on the overall world market." Another journalist was surprised that the leaders did not take questions from the press.
On 7 November 2024, the leaders of the Weimar Triangle issued a joint statement expressing concern over the 2024 Georgian parliamentary election calling for "swift and transparent investigations of all complaints and reports of election-related irregularities" and the reversal of the Russian-inspired legislation. On 31 December 2024, the Weimar Triangle foreign ministers made another statement about the overall political crisis, adding their concern about "violence against peaceful protesters, media and opposition leaders" and "[t]he political course of repression and democratic backsliding by the Georgian Dream" and stating that they were "determin[ed] to support the democratic and European aspirations of the Georgian people".
On 29 September 2025, the foreign ministers of France, Germany and Poland met at the Belweder Palace in Warsaw together with Ukraine's foreign minister. They discussed European security and support for Ukraine, condemned Russian incursions into EU member states' airspace, and called for stronger European defence capabilities and continued political, military and financial assistance to Ukraine.
Formations (government) Ministers of Foreign Affairs
28–29 August 1991 in Weimar, Germany: Hans-Dietrich Genscher, Roland Dumas, Krzysztof Skubiszewski 23–24 April 1992 in Bergerac, France: Hans-Dietrich Genscher, Roland Dumas, Krzysztof Skubiszewski 11–12 November 1993 in Warsaw, Poland: Klaus Kinkel, Alain Juppé, Andrzej Olechowski 14–15 September 1994 in Bamberg, Germany: Klaus Kinkel, Alain Juppé, Andrzej Olechowski 26 October 1995 in Paris, France: Klaus Kinkel, Hervé de Charette, Władysław Bartoszewski 19 December 1996 in Warsaw, Poland: Klaus Kinkel, Hervé de Charette, Dariusz Rosati 19 November 1997 in Frankfurt/Oder, Germany: Klaus Kinkel, Hubert Védrine, Dariusz Rosati 6 January 1999 in Paris, France: Joschka Fischer, Hubert Védrine, Bronisław Geremek 30 August 1999 in Weimar, Germany: Joschka Fischer, Hubert Védrine, Bronisław Geremek 7 June 2000 in Kraków, Poland: Joschka Fischer, Hubert Védrine, Bronisław Geremek 23 April 2002 in Paris, France: Joschka Fischer, Hubert Védrine, Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz 16 January 2004 in Berlin, Germany: Joschka Fischer, Dominique de Villepin, Włodzimierz CimoszewiczDerek Scally (15 January 2004), German and Polish ministers meet Irish Times. 27 June 2005 in Warsaw, Poland: Joschka Fischer, Philippe Douste-Blazy, Adam Daniel Rotfeld 17 June 2008 in Paris, France: Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Bernard Kouchner, Radoslaw Sikorski 26–27 April 2010 in Bonn, Germany: Guido Westerwelle, Bernard Kouchner, Radoslaw Sikorski (with Kostyantyn Gryshchenko from Ukraine as guest) 23 June 2010 in Paris, France: Guido Westerwelle, Bernard Kouchner, Radoslaw Sikorski (with Sergey Lavrov from Russia as guest) 20 May 2011 in Bydgoszcz, Poland: Guido Westerwelle, Alain Juppé, Radoslaw SikorskiJudy Dempsey (20 May 2011), France Joins Poland and Germany on Wider Unity International Herald Tribune. 29 February 2012 in Berlin, Germany: Guido Westerwelle, Alain Juppé, Radoslaw Sikorski 20 February 2014 in Kyiv, Ukraine: Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Laurent Fabius, Radoslaw SikorskiPhilip Oltermann and Paul Lewis (21 February 2014), EU foreign ministers agree sanctions against Ukrainian officials The Guardian. 31 March-1 April 2014 in Berlin and Weimar, Germany: Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Laurent Fabius, Radoslaw SikorskiTimothy Jones (23 May 1996), Germany, France, Poland call for new EU approach to eastern neighbors Deutsche Welle. 24 October 2014 in La Celle-Saint-Cloud, France: Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Laurent Fabius and Grzegorz Schetyna 3 April 2015 in Wrocław, Poland: Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Laurent Fabius and Grzegorz SchetynaJoint Communique of the Weimar Triangle Foreign Ministers Frank-Walter Steinmeier (Germany), Laurent Fabius (France), and Grzegorz Schetyna (Poland) in Wrocław, 3 April 2015 Federal Foreign Office of Germany, press release of 3 April 2015. 28–29 August 2016 in Weimar and Berlin, Germany: Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Jean-Marc Ayrault, Witold WaszczykowskiAndrea Shalal (28 August 2016), Germany, Poland and France revive Weimar group to bolster EU confidence Reuters.Weimar Triangle – Meeting between Jean-Marc Ayrault and his German and Polish counterparts (Weimar and Berlin, 28-29 August 2016) Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development, press release of 26 August 2016. 15 October 2020 in Paris, France: Heiko Maas, Jean-Yves Le Drian, Zbigniew Rau 10 September 2021 in Weimar, Germany: Heiko Maas, Jean-Yves Le Drian, Zbigniew Rau 1 March 2022 in Łódź, Poland: Annalena Baerbock, Jean-Yves Le Drian, Zbigniew RauDominique Vidalon (1 March 2022), France, Germany, Poland committed to strengthening Ukraine's integration with EU Reuters.