Poland's first post-Communist foreign minister dies at 83

Feb 8, 2010, 12:36 GMT

Warsaw - Krzysztof Skubiszewski, post-communist Poland's first foreign minister, died Monday in Warsaw aged 83, said a foreign ministry spokesman.

Skubiszewski headed the foreign ministry for four years, taking the post in 1989, as communism was ending in Poland after years of strikes by Lech Walesa's Solidarity labour union.

'We took this news with great grief,' Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told TVN 24. 'He was a man of great culture, a well-known lawyer,' Sikorski said, adding that Skubiszewski was the 'godfather' of the new generation of Solidarity unionists who first took power in an independent Poland.

Skubiszewski as minister worked towards Polish-German reconciliation and laid the foundations for the Weimar Triangle, a group of Poland, Germany and France that works towards bettering bilateral relations.

He was president and chairman of the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal Arbitrators, which deals with claims of US nationals against Iran. The tribunal was set up to resolve the crisis in relations between the US and the Islamic Republic after 52 US nationals were taken hostage in 1979.