Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Warsaw, Poland Wednesday evening on the first leg of his two-nation visit during which he will also travel to Ukraine’s capital Kyiv.
Mr Morarji Desai was the last Indian Prime Minister to visit Poland in 1979.
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Mr Modi was accorded a ceremonial welcome in Warsaw. He is expected to meet President Andrzej Sebastian Duda and hold bilateral talks with Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
The Prime Minister posted on X: “Landed in Poland. Looking forward to the various programmes here. This visit will add momentum to the India-Poland friendship and benefit the people of our nations.”
During his visit, Mr Modi is scheduled to visit memorials in Warsaw commemorating the time in the 1940s during the World War II, when more than 6,000 Polish women and children found refuge in two princely states in India, Jamnagar and Kolhapur.
The Prime Minister will also address members of the Indian community, estimated at around 25,000, select Polish business leaders and prominent Indologists.
Mr Modi has met his Polish counterpart on four occasions in the latter’s earlier capacity as the President of the European Council.
He had a telephonic conversation with President Duda in March 2022, thanking him for the assistance provided by Poland in the evacuation of Indian citizens from Ukraine.
He had thanked Poland for the special gesture of relaxing visa requirements for Indian citizens crossing over to Poland from the Ukraine conflict zone. More than 4000 Indian students were evacuated via Poland in 2022.
“My visit to Poland comes as we mark 70 years of our diplomatic relations. Poland is a key economic partner in Central Europe,” he said in his departure statement earlier today.
The Prime Minister’s historic visit to Poland in this landmark year for India and Polish relations will provide an opportunity to the countries to review the bilateral partnership and offer guidance on enhancing this cooperation in diverse areas and to discuss regional and global issues of mutual interest
