Polish President Karol Nawrocki has turned the focus of his New York visit to the Polish-American community, dedicating Sunday to diaspora events before a week of economic and diplomatic meetings around the United Nations General Assembly.
Nawrocki and First Lady Marta Nawrocka began the day at St Stanislaus Kostka Church in Greenpoint, one of New York’s best-known Polish parishes, which is celebrating its 130th anniversary.
The presidential couple attended Mass and unveiled a commemorative plaque at the church. The Polish presidency said Sunday’s programme would centre on meetings with Polonia, religious and patriotic events, and the presentation of state decorations to Polish-American activists.
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The president was then due to meet representatives of the Polish-American community at Christ the King High School in Middle Village, Queens, at 4pm local time.
The official programme includes a presidential address and a ceremony in which Nawrocki is to present Polish state decorations to people recognised for their work within the diaspora.
Diaspora takes centre stage before UN diplomacy
The decision to devote most of Sunday to Polonia gives the visit a different emphasis from the security-heavy diplomatic programme that follows.
Nawrocki is in the United States primarily to participate in the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly, but his New York schedule also places substantial weight on Poland’s links with its large American diaspora.
Polish communities in New York and elsewhere in the United States have long maintained religious, cultural, business and political organisations connecting them with Poland.
Greenpoint in Brooklyn has historically been one of the most recognisable centres of Polish life in New York, while the wider metropolitan area remains home to a substantial Polish-American population.
Sunday’s Queens event was organised as a broader community gathering rather than a closed diplomatic meeting. Local Polish-American media reported that it would include the president’s speech, presentation of honours and performances under the theme “Polskie serce Ameryki” — “The Polish Heart of America”.
State honours for Polish-Americans
The presidency has not yet published a full official list of those receiving decorations.
Polish media have reported, however, that one of those expected to be honoured is Zbigniew “Ziggy” Rozalski, a Polish-American businessman closely associated with the careers of prominent Polish boxers Andrzej Gołota and Tomasz Adamek.
Any final list will require confirmation once the ceremony has concluded.
The presentation of decorations fits a longstanding presidential tradition of recognising members of Polonia during overseas visits for contributions to Polish culture, community life and Poland’s international ties.
Visit began at Ground Zero
Sunday’s diaspora programme follows Nawrocki’s first official engagement in New York on Saturday.
The president and first lady visited the National September 11 Memorial, where they laid a wreath at the Survivor Tree and paid tribute to the victims of the 2001 terrorist attacks.
The attacks killed 2,996 people, including eight Polish citizens, according to the Polish presidency.
The symbolism of beginning the trip at Ground Zero placed the visit immediately within the broader history of Polish-American relations and transatlantic security.
Sunday, by contrast, has been designed primarily around people-to-people ties.
Economic summit follows on Monday
The diaspora events are also a bridge into the economic part of Nawrocki’s US programme.
On Monday, the president is scheduled to take part in a Polish-American Economic Summit at the Pilecki Institute in Manhattan.
Nawrocki is travelling with a group of Polish entrepreneurs under the presidency’s new Presidential Business Deck initiative, intended to help Polish companies build connections abroad.
After the economic summit, his programme moves more firmly into security diplomacy.
He is due to meet the presidents of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia for discussions focused on the security situation in Central and Eastern Europe.
The following days will centre on the UN General Assembly, including meetings with international leaders and Nawrocki’s first address to the General Assembly as Polish president.
Polonia as part of Poland-US relations
The New York gathering illustrates a part of Poland-US relations that often receives less attention than NATO, American troops in Poland or defence cooperation.
Polish-American organisations have for generations acted as cultural and political links between the two countries, while successive Polish presidents have treated meetings with Polonia as an important component of official US visits.
For Nawrocki, Sunday’s programme gives that relationship particular prominence at the beginning of his first major UN week as president.
It also creates a deliberate progression in his New York visit: remembrance at Ground Zero on Saturday, engagement with the Polish-American community on Sunday, economic diplomacy on Monday and then the wider international agenda of the United Nations.
