President Charles Nawrocki's visit to Berlin began with an authoritative welcome ceremony in the main courtyard of Bellevue Palace. The president of Poland met with president Frank-Walter Steinmeier there. After a brief welcome, both leaders had a private conversation and then chaired the plenary talks of the delegations of both countries. The agenda besides included a gathering with German Chancellor Friedrich Merzem.
For Karol Nawrocki, this is the first visit to Germany since taking office as President. He is accompanied, among others, by the Secretary of State in the Chancellery of the president and the head of the global Policy Office Marcin Przycz and Deputy Minister of abroad Affairs Teofil Bartoszewski. Earlier, the president had already visited the capital of the United States, Italy, Lithuania and Finland.
During the discussions with the German authorities, key issues concerning security, relations within the European Union, transatlantic cooperation and bilateral relations were discussed. War reparations were besides an crucial point of the agenda. As announced earlier by Rafał Leśkiewicz, president Nawrocki in Berlin was going to powerfully rise the issue of compensation for planet War II crimes, including return of cultural goods and compensation payments. This postulate was besides confirmed by the president of Poland during the speech on Westerplatte, where he stressed that a fair settlement of the past is simply a condition for building honest relations with Germany.
Following the gathering of the presidents, a spokesperson for the German head of state issued a message in which she noted that, according to the German side, the subject of reparation had been legally closed. However, as she stressed, both sides share the concern about the preservation of memory and the common commemoration of war victims.
