Poland and India upgrade relations during first visit by Indian PM in 45 years

Poland and India have decided to upgrade their diplomatic relationship to the level of strategic partnership, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced during the visit to Warsaw of his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi.

It is the first time in 45 years that an Indian prime minister has visited the country.

The prime ministers of both countries, celebrating 70 years of bilateral relations this year, confirmed their commitment to peace in Ukraine. They also discussed cooperation in defence and agriculture and plans to boost mutual trade.

“This is a very important day for Polish-Indian relations,” said Tusk during a joint press conference with Modi on Thursday.

“It is undoubtedly proof of the ever-improving relations between our countries. There are no conflicts of interest between us. We have always understood each other well, despite the distance, the different traditions, the different histories,” he continued.

“It is precisely history that has taught us, as the Prime Minister and I emphasised during our conversation, the importance of respecting the rules, respecting borders, the integrity of the territory, sovereignty, the rule of law,” said Tusk, adding that he welcomed his counterpart’s declarations of a commitment to a “peaceful end to the war” in Ukraine.

Following his visit to Poland, the Indian prime minister will travel to Kyiv, where he will hold talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday, just weeks after his talks with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Moscow. It will be the first visit to Ukraine of an Indian prime minister.

Sorry to interrupt your reading. The article continues below.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Tusk said that he and Modi had discussed elevating the diplomatic relationship to a strategic partnership. He added that the countries are determined to work together in the defence sector, energy transition and agriculture, among others, and boost trade.

“When it comes to defence industries, we have a lot of common opportunities for such genuine synergy. Thank you for inviting Poles, Polish companies and Polish scientists to India,” Tusk said.

Speaking alongside Tusk, Modi noted that “close cooperation in the defence sector is a symbol of mutual trust”.

In recent years, Poland has significantly increased its military expenditure and this year will spend the equivalent of 4.12% of GDP on defence, which is the highest level in NATO.

Regarding the countries’ future cooperation in agriculture, Modi noted that Poland is a world leader in food processing. “We would, therefore, like Polish companies to be included in the food banks now being set up in India,” he said.

“We agreed that the presence of Polish products and producers in the Indian markets can be increased and vice versa,” said Tusk. “The Indian offer in Poland will also be warmly welcomed.”

The prime ministers also discussed Poland’s visa policy, which made headlines last year over a corruption scandal that engulfed the then Law and Justice (PiS) government.

“I managed to earn the prime minister’s understanding of our new visa policy, which is all about restoring order,” said Tusk. “It is in no way aimed at India. Indian visitors will always be welcome in Poland, just as Poles are welcome in India.”

Claims that applicants for Polish visas, which also provide access to the European Schengen Zone, could make payments to effectively skip the queue caused a major scandal when they emerged during last October’s parliamentary elections campaign.

When Tusk’s government came to power in December, it formed a special parliamentary committee to investigate the issue. During the commission’s work, the former Polish consul in Mumbai and his deputy testified that the foreign ministry pressured Polish consulates to issue visas to Indian citizens.

During the conference, Modi also thanked Tusk for his words testifying to the countries’ mutual friendship. “The people of India will never forget Poland’s generosity, heart and effort, when in 2022 you helped Indian students stuck in Ukraine due to the war,” he said.

He added that the strategic partnership would enable the countries to support India’s rapid urbanisation.

“It opens the way to cooperation in sectors such as wastewater treatment, solid waste management and municipal infrastructure,” Modi said. “Renewable energy and artificial intelligence are other shared priorities.”

On Wednesday, Modi met with the Indian diaspora in Poland. He also laid flowers at several monuments in Warsaw commemorating shared Polish-Indian history.

Among the places he visited was the Good Maharaja monument commemorating the Indian Maharaja Jam Saheb Digvijaysinhji Ranjitsinhji, who provided care to around a thousand Polish children evacuated from the USSR during the Second World War.

He also paid homage at the Kolhapur Memorial commemorating the royal family of Kolhapur, which took in around 5,000 Polish refugees during the Second World War.

During a conference on Thursday, Modi announced that India would establish a youth exchange programme to commemorate Maharaja Jam Saheb Digvijaysinhji Ranjitsinhji. “Every year, 20 young people will visit India,” the Indian prime minister said.

Indians are the fourth largest group of foreign workers registered in the Polish social security system (known as ZUS), with 20,549 registered in 2023. Last year, Indians were also the third fastest-growing group of ZUS-enrolled workers, just behind Belarusians and Ukrainians, with 4,588 new workers added in a year.

Main image credit: Kancelaria Premiera / X

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.