NEW DELHI, Aug 21: The Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday arrived in Warsaw, the capital of Poland, on the first leg of his two-nation visit during which he will also travel to the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and share perspectives with President Volodymyr Zelensky on a peaceful resolution of its conflict with Russia.
Mr Modi’s visit to Poland is the first trip by an Indian Prime Minister to the country in the past 45 years. Mr Morarji Desai was the last Indian Prime Minister to visit Poland in 1979.
On his arrival at Warsaw, 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. He is also scheduled to visit the memorials in Warsaw commemorating the time in the 1940s, during 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 the 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 also 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 and for the special gesture of relaxing visa requirements for Indian citizens crossing over to Poland from the 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 in the day.
While announcing Mr Modi’s visit to Poland and Ukraine, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Monday had said, “Our bilateral trade is substantial. And it’s of the order of US$6 billion, which makes Poland India’s largest trading partner in Central and Eastern Europe. Indian investments in Poland are estimated at around US$3 billion. And the Polish investments into India are around US$1 billion.”
“Many Indian companies have an active business presence in Poland. And they are engaged in a range of sectors, from IT to pharmaceuticals to manufacturing to farm vehicles to electronics, steel, metals and chemicals. Nearly 30 Polish companies have a business presence in India. And some of them have manufacturing units. There are direct flights between India and Poland, which commenced in 2019. And this, in a way, is helping the economic and commercial linkages,” said MEA Secretary Tanmaya Lal.
The Prime Minister will visit Kyiv on August 23 and hold talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky.
(Manas Dasgupta)
