Andrzej Duda travelled to Vienna on Thursday evening ahead of a series of meetings scheduled for Friday, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
The Polish president, who is accompanied by First Lady Agata Kornhauser-Duda, is due to be hosted by his Austrian counterpart Alexander Van der Bellen at the Hofburg palace in Vienna before noon on Friday, according to officials.
Duda is later scheduled to hold talks with Austria’s Chancellor Karl Nehammer and National Council (lower house of parliament) President Wolfgang Sobotka, the PAP news agency reported.
Support for Ukraine
The Polish president is expected to encourage Austria’s leaders to provide military assistance to Ukraine as it fights the Russian invasion, officials said.
Austria, which is not a member of the NATO alliance, has so far strived to maintain neutrality in relation to the war in Ukraine, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
Marcin Przydacz, a top foreign-policy aide to the Polish head of state, told reporters: “The president will seek to persuade Austrian leaders to provide more active support to Ukraine, while respecting the legal circumstances.”
Przydacz said that “there is a whole spectrum of measures that Austria can take as a democratic, Western European and values-based country.”
“We’ll be seeking to encourage our partners to be more active in this regard,” he added.
Security issues
Przydacz said that Duda would also speak to Austrian leaders about security matters.
Topics are set to include “ways to deal with security challenges, in view of the Russian policy and Russia’s aggression against Ukraine,” including “ways to further protect the eastern flank of the European Union, and in the case of Poland, obviously the eastern flank of NATO, as well,” Przydacz told reporters.
Bilateral Polish-Austrian relations
The Polish president is expected to discuss “ways to boost economic cooperation” between Poland and Austria, according to officials.
Also on the agenda will be historical issues, including the memorialisation of the victims of the World War II Nazi German concentration camp Mauthausen-Gusen, which was located in what is today’s Austria, the IAR news agency reported.
While in Vienna, Duda will also meet with the head of the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi to speak about the situation in the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine, according to IAR.
Friday is day 415 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP