On Thursday, 16 February, Polish President Andrzej Duda arrived for his two days visit and met with the British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, at 10 Downing Street.
President Duda arrived in London today in the morning and first visited the Polish War Memorial in Northolt to lay a commemorative wreath in honour of the fallen Polish pilots who fought for the Allies during World War II. The Memorial was erected and partly funded by the British in honour of the Polish pilots and their contribution to the Battle of Britain. The monument was unveiled on November 2, 1948.
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Exactly at 1 pm, British PM Rishi Sunak warmly welcomed President Duda at his office at 10 Downing Street. Instead of planned half an hour talks, the meeting lasted over forty-five minutes.
After the meeting with the British PM, President Duda met with Polish media representatives at the press conference. He commented on the talks with Rishi Sunak, emphasizing it was their first face-to-face meeting and the conversations went as planned. Mr Sunak acknowledged the importance of the matters raised in the meeting.
First of all, President Duda gave thanks to Great Britain for its significant contribution to Poland’s security, in particular for the presence of British soldiers on Polish territory and the effective Sky Saber system guarding the Polish sky. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, on his side, recognised and praised Poland’s „resilience and international leadership after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.”
Andrzej Duda emphasized how important is the military strength of Central and Eastern European countries: „We need more NATO equipment on the eastern borders of Europe. Our strengthened forces will become more challenging and discouraging for potential aggressors. No doubt, this process involves higher military spending. Poland is currently allocating 4 per cent of its GDP to defence, which should bring considerable results, especially in the face of the resurgent Russian imperialism in need of an effective deterrent. And for Russians, strength is the best deterrent, and our increased military investments and NATO allies’ support will become an effective barrier against the potential aggressor.
Another important topic raised during the meeting was the post-war prospective task of helping Ukraine in the recovery process in terms of rebuilding and reconstructing the war-inflicted damages. “We are counting on British support here (…). Poland is a key transit country on the way to Ukraine, so our participation seems obvious to me (…) and I often emphasise to our Ukrainian partners that I deeply believe that thanks to our support, and the support of the western European countries, post-war Ukraine will become more beautiful than the one that Russia invaded. I would like Poland to be in the game in this respect, and we are striving for it,” stressed Andrzej Duda.
In his conversation with Rishi Sunak, President Duda also brought up the subject of the current Polish diaspora. “We would be grateful if the Polish community in the UK experienced better support from the British authorities, if only in terms of greater financial support and educational possibilities for Polish children and young adults. I am bringing up this issue because hard-working Poles participate in the growth of the UK economy, so it would be good, for mutual benefit, to count on the British authorities’ support”.
Andrzej Duda’s entire speech during the press conference is available below (in Polish).
At noon on Friday, the President of the Republic of Poland will meet King Charles III at Buckingham Palace.
Maria Byczynski
The main picture: Jakub Szymczuk Twitter @prezydentpl
Pictures: British Poles
Translation: Jolanta Pitera
