Biden will arrive in the southeastern Polish city of Rzeszów in the early afternoon, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
He will be greeted by his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda, and the two leaders are set to meet with charities helping refugees from Ukraine, according to officials.
Biden will also visit American troops recently deployed to eastern Poland as part of the NATO alliance’s efforts to strengthen its eastern flank, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
On Saturday, the US leader will hold talks with Poland's Duda at the presidential palace in Warsaw before making a speech to the Polish people outside the capital's Royal Castle, reporters were told.
'Biden's visit shows Poland's role in NATO'
Ahead of the visit, Duda said that Biden wanted to assess “the security situation on the NATO alliance’s eastern flank, the American presence in Poland and the refugee crisis which Poland is facing at the moment,” the PAP news agency reported.
“We’ll be discussing these issues, we’ll be discussing Poland’s security, we’ll be discussing the alliance, which is acting collectively and is absolutely unequivocally unified with regard to Russia’s assault on Ukraine,” the Polish president was quoted as saying.
Duda added that Biden's visit showed “Poland’s importance in the NATO alliance today.”
Meanwhile, the White House said that Biden’s trip to Poland was part of his drive “to discuss international efforts to support Ukraine and impose severe and unprecedented costs on Russia for its invasion.”
The meeting with the Polish president would explore “how the United States, alongside our Allies and partners, is responding to the humanitarian and human rights crisis that Russia’s unjustified and unprovoked war on Ukraine has created,” according to the White House.
The US president will arrive in Poland from Brussels, Belgium, where he held talks with NATO, G7 and European Union leaders, the IAR news agency reported.
Friday is day 30 of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Poland on Friday reported it had welcomed 2.24 million refugees fleeing Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP, whitehouse.gov