POLAND: Annual Diplomatic Conference in Warsaw & more – 10th July 2025

‘Witam from BA! This is the Rorshok Poland Update from the 10th of July twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Poland.

Let’s kick off with updates in foreign diplomacy. On Monday, the 7th, the twenty twenty-five Annual Conference of Heads of Diplomatic Missions took place in Warsaw, bringing together over 160 ambassadors, consuls, and representatives from Polish cultural institutions around the world.

Radosław Sikorski, the Foreign Minister, spoke at the conference, saying strong NATO ties and good relations with the US are key to Poland’s security and success.

He also talked about a recent visa law that requires students to prove their diplomas and language skills, schools to report dropouts, and visa applications to be submitted online, saying that these changes will help fix past visa rule violations and make the system safer and fairer.

Sikorski also shared that Poland would upgrade its embassies in cities like Paris, New York, and Rome through new investments, renovations, and leases.

He added that artificial intelligence will soon play a bigger role in diplomacy, becoming a regular tool in the daily work of embassies and consulates.

Switching gears to the economy, on Monday, the 7th, Donald Tusk, the Prime Minister, took part in an economic conference in the capital focused on cutting unnecessary rules and barriers to help businesses grow and make the economy stronger.

Tusk promised the government would keep working hard to boost Poland’s economy, focusing on improving skills, attracting more investment, supporting businesses, encouraging innovation, and raising education standards to make life better for Polish families.

Tusk also talked about the latest International Monetary Fund ranking that shows Poland is set to become the world’s 20th biggest economy this year, beating Switzerland.

This ranking measures the total value of all goods and services a country produces in a year, showing that Poland’s economy is growing and moving up.

Also on Monday, six major Polish institutions, including the Polish Development Fund, Industrial Development Agency and National Development Bank, partnered up to create Team Poland, a new program aimed at helping Polish businesses compete better around the world.

Its first project, called Team Poland for Ukraine, is about helping Polish companies take part in rebuilding Ukraine after the war. They’ll offer Polish companies loans, insurance, expert advice, and help finding business partners in Ukraine.

Team Poland will officially launch on 11th of July at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Rome.

In more new projects, on Wednesday, the 9th, Poland kicked off a 700 million dollar program to help local governments, schools, and businesses get more digital, covering things like data analysis, cloud tech, and cybersecurity.

Krzysztof Gawkowski, Poland’s Minister of Digital Affairs, said that local authorities, universities, and businesses can now apply, with loans for local governments and universities offered at zero interest.

Still on digital matters, on Wednesday, the 9th, Gawkowski said the country would ask the EU to take action against Elon Musk’s Twitter after its chatbot Grok used vulgar language to insult PM Tusk and other Polish officials.

Gawkowski said that AI is making hate speech worse and that AI shouldn’t be treated the same as humans when it comes to free speech.

Meanwhile in defense, on Wednesday, the 9th, KenBIT, a Polish defense technology firm, signed a deal with a group of Israeli defense companies to provide Poland’s military with eighteen advanced radars that detect low-flying aircraft and drones, helping protect the Baltic coast.

The deal, worth about 500 million zloty, which is 125 million dollars, will bring the first radars by twenty twenty-seven.

Polish military experts say boosting coastal surveillance is important to protect key infrastructure, especially since the Russian invasion of Ukraine has raised security risks in the region.

On another security update, on Friday, the 4th, President Duda visited the border with Belarus to show his respect to the soldiers, police, and border guards for their work defending not just Poland, but the whole EU and Schengen area.

Speaking near the border fence, Duda thanked the teams for their bravery and for saving lives, like pulling migrants out of freezing rivers and swamps. He also apologized to the soldiers for accusations made by some Poles who said that the troops were too harsh or mistreated migrants, adding that those allegations were unfair.

Czesław Mroczek, the Deputy Interior Minister, said that when Belarus pushed thousands of migrants toward Poland in twenty twenty-one, sending the military to the border helped slow down illegal crossings and nearly shut down the smuggling route.

Since we mentioned immigration, on Sunday, the 6th, around 10,000 people walked through Toruń, a city in north-central Poland, to remember a twenty-four-year-old woman who died on the 12th of July after being stabbed by a nineteen-year-old Venezuelan.

Ultra-nationalist groups like the National Movement and All-Polish Youth organized the march, where people carried white roses, Polish flags, and signs calling to stop illegal immigration.

However, not everyone at the march agreed with that. Some said people should focus more on condemning the crime itself instead of blaming all immigrants.

Civil rights and migrant groups warned against using this incident to paint entire communities in a bad light.

Next up, on Tuesday, the 8th, President Duda met with Maia Sandu, the Moldovan President, in Warsaw. He thanked Moldova for working hard to join the EU, adding that Poland got their back in the whole process.

They also talked about security in the region and the ongoing war in Ukraine. Duda said that Moldova is making good progress with reforms, even though the Russian invasion of Ukraine is causing problems like disrupted trade and rising prices.

Sandu thanked Duda for being a solid supporter and said she’s proud of the strong bond between Moldova and Poland.

While in Warsaw, she also met with PM Tusk and spoke at the Warsaw’s Diplomats’ Conference about Moldova’s EU journey and the need to protect democracy.

Still in meetings,on Monday, the 7th, PM Tusk met with Dick Schoof, the Dutch Prime Minister, in Warsaw to discuss European security.

They signed a new agreement to strengthen defence cooperation between Poland and the Netherlands, covering key areas such as defence planning, joint military operations, defence industry collaboration, and the protection of critical infrastructure.

The Netherlands also promised to send F-35 fighter jets to help watch over Polish airspace from September to December twenty twenty-five.

Tusk said their countries' cooperation on defence, weapons, and industry sets a great example, and if other European countries worked like this, defence projects would progress much faster.

On a sad note, on Tuesday the 8th, serious rain storms hit eastern, southern and central Poland, including the capital.

Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, the Defence Minister, said the military is all set to help, with a special team near Rzeszów, a city in southeastern Poland, and troops on high alert in four provinces.

A couple of days later, on Thursday, the 10th, Poland’s top officials held an emergency meeting due to heavy rain and flash floods that were causing trouble, especially in the Podkarpackie and Małopolskie provinces in southern Poland.

Since Monday, rescue teams have handled over 4,300 calls. Weather experts said some areas got over three inches or almost eight centimeters of rain in twelve hours, and while it should ease in a couple of days, they still expect more rain in the south and east.

The PM thanked firefighters, soldiers, police, and volunteers for jumping into action fast.

Closing this episode with unrelated news, on Saturday, the 5th, Kinga Duda, President Andrzej Duda’s only daughter, got married at the Presidential Palace in Warsaw with about fifty close family and friends attending, just before her dad’s term ends.

The wedding faced criticism, with many saying that it was wrong to hold a private event at a government building and that taxpayers paid for it since it happened at the Presidential Palace.

However, Małgorzata Paprocka from the President’s office clarified that President Duda paid for everything privately, and since the Palace is also the family’s home, hosting a family event there is totally allowed.

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

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