Poland’s new president, Karol Nawrocki, will make a working visit to Finland next Tuesday, hosted by his Finnish counterpart, Alexander Stubb.
The presidents will meet at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki to discuss strengthening bilateral relations between Finland and Poland, Russia’s illegal war of aggression in Ukraine and other current security policy issues, Stubb’s office said on Wednesday. After their talks, the heads of state are to hold a joint press conference.
On Wednesday, Nawrocki was in Washington for talks with his US opposite number, Donald Trump, who endorsed him in Poland's election in June. Nawrocki, a conservative nationalist with no prior political experience, won the election narrowly. The US visit is Nawrocki's first overseas trip since taking office in July.
Lithuanian president gets a kantele
Nawrocki's trip to Finland follows this week’s working visit by Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda. On Monday evening, he and Stubb attended a European Championship game between the two countries’ men’s basketball teams in Tampere. Lithuania won by a score of 81-78.
On Tuesday the two presidents discussed Russia's attack on Ukraine, support for Kyiv, tougher sanctions on Moscow as well as bilateral ties and the Middle East situation.
During a press conference in Helsinki with Nausėda on Tuesday, Stubb said that racism has no place in Finnish society. He said that as president, his job is to protect human rights, and that Finland's success is partly due to its protection of minorities, including immigrants. He was responding to a question related to Monday’s government talks over the appropriate use of language by ministers and MP, particularly when referring to immigrants.
That followed last week's racist comments by the Finns Party's first deputy chair, Teemu Keskisarja. His inflammatory statements about immigrants on an Yle talk show were condemned by the leaders of the other three governing parties, but not the Finns Party chair, Finance Minister Riikka Purra.
During his visit, the Finnish Literature Society presented Nausėda with a Lithuanian five-stringed kantele or kanklės from its collection. It was brought to Finland in the 1910s by folklorist Aukusti Robert Niemi.