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Polish president to visit Italy, Vatican next week

15.09.2020 11:50
Polish President Andrzej Duda is scheduled to visit Italy and the Vatican next week on his first foreign trip after being re-elected as head of state.
Polish President Andrzej Duda.
Polish President Andrzej Duda.Photo: Igor Smirnow/KPRP

His three-day trip beginning next Wednesday, September 23, will include “three key components,” according to his chief of staff, Krzysztof Szczerski.

"First, the president will pay an official bilateral visit to Italy, where he will meet with that country’s president and prime minister,” Szczerski told public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency.

Second, Duda will stop at a Polish war cemetery at Monte Cassino to pay tribute to World War II military leader Władysław Anders on the 50th anniversary of the general’s death, according to Szczerski.

Duda will also unveil a bust of Anders at the Polish embassy in Rome, Szczerski said on Monday.

“The third important component of the three-day visit will be a meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican as well as a Mass at the tomb of St. John Paul II,” Szczerski added.

While in Rome, Duda will also attend a ceremony during which Poland will officially join the International Fund for Agricultural Development, Szczerski told the IAR news agency.

He added that Poland's decision to become a member of this UN agency was “a gesture of solidarity and a desire to help all starving people around the world.”

During his September 23-25 trip, the Polish president is also expected to stop by an Italian coronavirus research center, Szczerski said.

Duda told private TV broadcaster Polsat last month that his planned visit to Italy and the Vatican would be “a very important trip” for him.

“I think many Poles will agree that this is where I should travel at the start of my second term as president," he said at the time.

Duda was sworn into his second term in office before both houses of Poland’s parliament in Warsaw on August 6.

(gs/pk)

Source: IAR