External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in New Delhi and welcomed his views on strengthening India-Poland cooperation across a broad range of sectors. Following the meeting, Jaishankar said he appreciated Tusk's thoughts on “deepening India-Poland cooperation across a wide range of domains”.

He also expressed optimism about Tusk's discussions with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, stating, “Look forward to his meeting with PM Narendra Modi to advance our Strategic Partnership.”

Tusk is on a two-day official visit to India from 21-23 October at the invitation of Prime Minister Modi. He is accompanied by Poland's Minister of Finance and Economy, Andrzej Domanski, along with a high-level business delegation. The visit is aimed at expanding cooperation in trade, technology, space, defence and other strategic sectors while giving fresh momentum to bilateral relations.

As part of his programme, the Polish Prime Minister is scheduled to pay tribute to Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat through a wreath-laying ceremony. He will also hold wide-ranging talks with Prime Minister Modi to review bilateral ties and exchange views on regional and global developments of mutual interest.

In addition, Tusk will participate in the India-Poland Business Forum in New Delhi before travelling to Bangalore, where he is expected to engage with leaders from the information technology and space industries.

The visit follows a significant upgrade in bilateral relations after India and Poland elevated their ties to a Strategic Partnership during Prime Minister Modi's visit to Poland in August 2024. Tusk's current trip marks the first visit by a Polish Prime Minister to India since 2010, underlining the growing importance both countries attach to the relationship.

Former Polish Ambassador to India Adam Burakowski described the visit as strongly focused on economic cooperation. He noted that both countries are working towards raising annual bilateral trade from approximately $6 billion to $10 billion.

“This visit is mainly on business, and the big focus on business there will be one economic forum in Delhi and another one in Bangalore. And there will be many MoUs signed between Polish and Indian companies,” Burakowski said.

He added that cooperation in space and defence would feature prominently in discussions and characterised the visit as an opportunity to significantly broaden economic engagement between the two nations.

Burakowski also highlighted the importance of the proposed India-European Union Free Trade Agreement, saying, “The India-EU free trade agreement is a key instrument to achieve this goal because it's the biggest FTA that the European Union has signed with anybody and vice versa.” He noted that the agreement could substantially enhance economic cooperation and trade flows.

Reflecting on emerging areas of collaboration, he said, “What are we discussing right now is about trade, the defence sector and space technology. Recently, there was a mission that included two astronauts, one from Poland and the other from India. We can say that this is the start of a new era.”

Michał Matlak, Director of the ŁUKASIEWICZ-ITECH Institute of Innovation and Technology, said the visit comes at a pivotal moment following the elevation of bilateral ties to a Strategic Partnership. “In 2024, Prime Minister Modi was in Poland, and he upgraded the Polish-Indian relationship to a strategic one. And now the Prime Minister is here to even strengthen and to give some kind of meaning to this partnership,” he said.

Matlak emphasised the growing opportunities for collaboration between Polish institutions and India's innovation ecosystem, including the Indian Institutes of Technology, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and Indian Start-Ups.

“This will give us lots of opportunities,” he said, pointing to the potential for deeper research, technology and innovation partnerships.

He also highlighted India's participation in the European Union's Horizon research program as an avenue through which Indian and European researchers could pursue joint projects and gain greater access to research funding and collaborative opportunities.

According to the Ministry of External Affairs, Tusk's visit is expected to provide fresh impetus to the India-Poland Strategic Partnership and deepen the longstanding political, economic, technological and people-to-people ties between the two countries.

ANI