After the meeting, Duda told reporters that "the Belarus issue" should be continually brought to the attention of the international community by European and world leaders because "today's Belarus is a visible example of what happens when democracy does not exist" and "how democratic principles can be brutally broken."
He described Belarus, governed by strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko, as "a country where no democratic principles are respected by the regime, where thousands of people are imprisoned, where people are suffering and being intimidated and dismissed from work."
Tsikhanouskaya noted that Poland was among the first countries to "accept Belarusian people" and support "the democratic movement" in Belarus.
"I respect Poland very much for taking such a principled position," she said, adding that other countries "were not so brave."
Ahead of the meeting, which took place at the presidential palace in Warsaw in the early afternoon, Duda’s foreign policy aide, Jakub Kumoch, told reporters that Poland viewed Tsikhanouskaya "as someone who is speaking on behalf of the Belarusian people.”
He added that Poland was "in dispute with Lukashenko" amid a crisis on the two countries' shared border, "not with the Belarusian people."
The Polish president was later on Thursday scheduled to discuss the situation in Belarus and Polish support for that country's democratic opposition at a virtual Summit for Democracy convened by the administration in Washington.
After the summit, the Polish president and First Lady Agata Kornhauser-Duda were expected to host a Christmas event in Warsaw for Tsikhanouskaya and members of Poland’s Belarusian diaspora.
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Source: IAR, PAP
Click on the audio player above for a report by Radio Poland's Michał Owczarek.