POLAND

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Context

• The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has congratulated Excellency Donald Tusk on being elected as Prime Minister of Poland.

About Poland

• It is a country located in Central Europe and is the fifth-most populous member state of the European Union.
• Warsaw is the capital of Poland.
• It is bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukraine to the east, Slovakia and the Czech Republic to the south, and Germany to the west.
• It also shares maritime boundaries with Denmark and Sweden.

Geography of Poland

• Poland is the ninth-largest country in Europe.
• The central and northern regions of Poland bordering the Baltic Sea lie within the flat Central European Plain, but its south is hilly and mountainous.
• The country has a coastline spanning 770 km extending from the shores of the Baltic Sea, along the Bay of Pomerania in the west to the Gulf of Gdańsk in the east.
• The beach coastline is abundant in dune fields or coastal ridges and is indented by spits and lagoons, notably the Hel Peninsula and the Vistula Lagoon, which is shared with Russia.
• The largest Polish island on the Baltic Sea is Wolin, located within Wolin National Park.
• Poland also shares the Szczecin Lagoon and the Usedom Island with Germany.
• The mountainous belt in the extreme south of Poland is divided into two major mountain ranges the Sudetes in the west and the Carpathians in the east.
• Poland’s highest point is Mount Rysy at 2,501 meters in elevation.
• The lowest point in Poland is situated at RaczkiElblskie in the Vistula Delta, which is 1.8 meters below sea level.
• Poland’s longest rivers are the Vistula, the Oder, the Warta, and the Bug.
• The country also possesses one of the highest densities of lakes in the world.
• The deepest is Lake Hańcza at 108.5 metres in depth.