2024-09-22 14:06 update: 2024-09-26, 19:03
Andrzej Duda. Photo PAP/Leszek Szymański
Polish President Andrzej Duda arrived in New York on Saturday evening local time, where he is scheduled to attend the 79th session of the UN General Assembly planned for Tuesday.
According to his itinerary, Duda and his wife Agata Kornhauser-Duda were set to attend the ceremony at the National Shrine of Our Lady, popularly known as the American Czestochowa, in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, on Sunday.
The Polish-American Roman Catholic shrine houses a reproduction of the Black Madonna icon kept inside the Jasna Gora monastery in the Polish town of Czestochowa, one of Poland's main destination of pilgrimage.
PAP had previously reported about a potential meeting between Duda and US presidential candidate Donald Trump but later the Polish President’s Office said it was cancelled.
News of the planned Duda-Trump meeting sparked controversy in Washington, with Democratic politicians warning that it would be interpreted as an endorsement of the Republican candidate just 43 days before the US presidential election.
On September 23, Duda’s schedule includes participation in the plenary session of the "Summit for the Future," a new global peace plan for 'uniquely dangerous' times, according to the UN.
On the same day, Duda is set to attend the Round Table of leaders of the Three Seas Initiative, aimed at building regional connectivity in Central and Eastern Europe, organised by the Atlantic Council.
The highlight of Duda's US visit will be his speech during the general debate of the 79th session of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday evening.
Duda said before his departure for New York that this would be his tenth and farewell session of the UN General Assembly. He said that the message of "peace through law" from his first speech 10 years ago was still relevant which he said he would talk about during this UN Assembly.
"We must strive for a world that is governed by law, that is established by law, not by the law of the strength," he said on Saturday, referring to the ongoing Russian aggression against Ukraine and the conflict in the Middle East.
On Wednesday, Duda will meet with the presidents of the Baltic states and participate in the open debate of the UN Security Council "Leadership for Peace," addressing some of the most intractable peace and security challenges.
Duda's schedule also includes a number of bilateral meetings with high officials, including with the Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Denis Becirovic, the Secretary General of the UN Antonio Guterres, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe Alain Berset, the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, the President of the World Jewish Congress Ronald S. Lauder, and the President of the Democratic Republic of Congo Felix-Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo.
The US visit will conclude with the Polish presidential couple's attendance to a reception hosted by US President Joe Biden at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. (PAP)
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