Polish President Karol Nawrocki has begun a five-day visit to the United States by paying tribute to the victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks, before a series of meetings in New York culminating in his first address to the UN General Assembly as president.
Nawrocki and First Lady Marta Nawrocka visited the National September 11 Memorial at Ground Zero on Saturday, placing a wreath beneath the Survivor Tree and visiting the memorial pools marking the footprints of the former World Trade Center towers.
The Survivor Tree, a Callery pear recovered from the wreckage of the World Trade Center and later restored, has become one of the best-known symbols of survival after the attacks.
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This year marks the 25th anniversary of September 11, 2001, when 2,996 people were killed in coordinated attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. Eight Polish citizens were among the victims, according to the Polish presidency.
The New York memorial visit was the first official engagement of Nawrocki’s trip.
Five days in the United States
Nawrocki arrived in New York late on Friday local time after flying from Poland. His visit runs from 19 to 23 September and is formally connected with the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly.
The presidency says security will be one of the central themes of the visit, particularly the situation in Central and Eastern Europe.
Before Nawrocki left Poland, presidential foreign-policy chief Marcin Przydacz stressed that the trip should not be treated as a bilateral visit to Washington.
This is not a bilateral visit to Washington, but participation in the United Nations General Assembly,” Przydacz said.
He nevertheless said the Polish side expected opportunities for shorter discussions with international leaders, including US President Donald Trump.
Nawrocki is due to attend a reception hosted by Trump and First Lady Melania Trump on Tuesday evening.
Polonia first on Sunday
The Polish president’s programme on Sunday will centre on New York’s large Polish-American community.
Nawrocki and his wife are scheduled to attend Mass at St Stanislaus Kostka Church before meeting representatives of the Polish diaspora at Christ the King High School in Middle Village, Queens.
The president is expected to address the gathering and present state decorations.
The Polish presidency has emphasised the importance of the diaspora element of the trip.
Przydacz noted before departure that hundreds of thousands of Poles and Americans of Polish origin live in New York and that almost 10 million people across the United States identify as having Polish roots.
Polish business joins presidential visit
Economic diplomacy will become more prominent on Monday.
Nawrocki is scheduled to take part in a Polish-American Economic Summit at the Pilecki Institute in New York.
For the first time during one of his foreign visits, the president is also being accompanied by a group of Polish entrepreneurs selected under the presidency’s Presidential Business Deck initiative.
According to the presidential office, the intention is for Nawrocki to help create contacts for Polish companies and support their access to the US market.
“The president wants to be a link for these companies, open doors for them and help them,” Przydacz said before the trip.
Security talks with Baltic presidents
Security is expected to dominate Nawrocki’s diplomatic meetings on the margins of the UN gathering.
The president is scheduled to hold talks with the leaders of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, with the presidency saying the meeting will focus on security challenges facing Central, Northern and Eastern Europe.
That discussion comes at a time of heightened concern in Poland over Russian military activity and repeated attacks on western Ukraine close to the Polish border.
Immediately before leaving for New York, Nawrocki met Defence Minister Wadysław Kosiniak-Kamysz and Chief of the General Staff Gen Wiesław Kukuła to discuss the security situation, recent events near Poland’s border and NATO assessments.
The visit’s security agenda will therefore run in parallel with Warsaw’s continuing focus on Russia, Ukraine and NATO’s eastern flank.
First UN General Assembly speech as president
Nawrocki will join other heads of state and government on Tuesday for the formal opening of the general debate at the 81st session of the UN General Assembly.
His own address is scheduled for approximately 3pm New York time on Wednesday, 23 September, when he is due to be the first speaker in the afternoon session.
The speech will be Nawrocki’s first address to the UN General Assembly since taking office as Polish president.
Before then, he is also expected to meet UN Secretary-General Antnio Guterres, take part in meetings with international leaders and hold talks with the Crown Prince of Kuwait.
The presidency has said the visit will also address the Middle East and energy-market pressures alongside European security.
For Nawrocki, however, the opening image of the trip was deliberately symbolic: beginning his first major UN week as president at the site of an attack that transformed American and NATO security policy a quarter of a century ago.
