Ahead of the visit, Duda’s top foreign policy aide, Jakub Kumoch, told public broadcaster Polish Radio that Warsaw was keen to work with Vienna “especially in building the institutions of the Three Seas Initiative, but also in existing infrastructure projects, where Austria is a significant part of the equation.”
The Polish-led Three Seas Initiative brings together 12 European Union countries between the Baltic, Adriatic and Black Seas, according to officials.
Meanwhile, Austria is expected to emphasise joint environmental projects during the talks in Warsaw, Kumoch said, as cited by Polish Radio’s IAR news agency.
He added that Austria was an "important regional partner" for Poland.
Austria’s presidential couple were set to arrive at Warsaw’s presidential palace at 11 a.m. to meet with the Polish head of state and the first lady, followed by a private meeting between Duda and Van der Bellen, a session involving both national delegations, and finally a news conference of the two leaders, Duda’s office announced.
At 5 p.m., Duda and Van der Bellen were set to attend the "Green Future" Polish-Austrian Economic Forum held in Warsaw as part of the annual Congress 590 conference, the IAR news agency reported.
The Austrian president was also scheduled to meet with Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and the Speakers of both chambers of the Polish parliament, the lower house's Elżbieta Witek and the upper house's Tomasz Grodzki, according to the Polish presidential office.
On Monday, Van der Bellen visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum in the southern Polish city of Oświęcim, where he toured an exhibition about Austrian victims as well as perpetrators of Nazi terror, the IAR news agency reported.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP