Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya met with Polish President Karol Nawrocki. According to the Office of Tsikhanouskaya, this is the first bilateral meeting after Nawrocki’s election as President. Earlier, the leaders met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya expressed gratitude for Poland’s support for Belarusians, its consistent and principled stance, and for its assistance to released political prisoners, repressed persons and the democratic movement. During the meeting, they discussed the process of releasing political prisoners, the situation of Andrzej Poczobut, relations with the U.S. administration and the regional security situation. Tsikhanouskaya expressed hope that political prisoners would continue to be released and that Poland, as before, would provide necessary support to those freed, including in matters of legalisation and documentation.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya also proposed to Karol Nawrocki several joint initiatives to support the Belarusian community in Poland in the areas of historical heritage, culture and literature. She invited him to take part in Belarusian festivals and amateur sporting events organised by Belarusians, and to include Belarus in regional-format initiatives such as the Lublin Triangle.
Nawrocki was also presented with the draft concept of the Belarusian Institute of National Memory, developed by democratic forces. This project, they noted, would help people learn the truth about repression during the Soviet era and recent years through access to archives and testimonies, and would help the state cleanse its bureaucratic system of harmful practices of the past. It is worth noting that before being elected President of Poland, Karol Nawrocki headed the Polish Institute of National Memory.
