News

VILNIUS, Aug 20, BNS - Poland's new President Bronislaw Komorowski is spending his vacation in Lithuania. During the holiday, Komorowski who has Lithuanian roots met with Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaite, her press service reported on Friday.

"We can confirm that the president is on a private visit in Lithuania for his holiday," the Polish Embassy to Lithuania told BNS. According to information available to BNS, the two state leaders met in the Curonian Spit on Thursday. A photograph on the website of the Lithuanian President's Office pictures Grybauskaite and Komorowski having a conversation while walking along the Curonian Lagoon.

During their meeting, the two presidents discussed the relations between Lithuania and Poland, national minority situation in both countries, common foreign policy priorities, the continuity of bilateral cooperation and strategic partnership, the implementation of regional strategic energy and transport projects, the preparations of both countries for the European Union's rotating presidency and the chairmanship of the OSCE, and NATO's newstrategic concept, reads the press release.

According to the communique, the presidents of Lithuania and Poland agreed to continue the strategic transport and energy projects in building gas and electricity connections between Lithuania and Poland, which are of major importance for Poland, the Baltic States and the European Union, to coordinate their national priorities - NATO's collective defense and responding to new threats - and to have these priorities included in the newstrategic concept. "Lithuania and Poland have been long united by their shared history, traditions and partnership. Just recently, we have celebrated the 600th Anniversary of the Battle of Zalgiris (Grunwald). Our two nations are bound to stand together not only by their common historical past, but also by the interests that our countries and their people share today. Together with President Bronislaw Komorowski, we will work for the continued stability of relations between our countries, based on neighborly understanding and mutual trust," Grybauskaite said in the pres release.

Komorowski, 58, took the presidential oath of office on Aug. 6. On his website, Komorowski emphasizes his close connections with Lithuania. His family description indicates that one of his ancestors was killed in the Vorskla Battle in 1399 while fighting together with the Grand Duke of Lithuania Vytautas. His parents, Zygmunt Leon Komorowski and Jadwiga Komorowska, come from Lithuania.

The president's book published in Warsaw in 2005 includes a photograph of Komorowski's grandfather Juliusz Komorowski sitting on the terrace of the former Kovaliskis Estate in the Rokiskis district, centra lLithuania. The Komorowski family had a number of estates in Lithuania and Poland, however, Komorowski said the center of origin of his direct ancestors has been in the region of Lithuania's second-largest city Kaunas since the 18th century.