Hints that Polish-Lithuanian relations may improve from Polish president Andrzej Duda

After the conference, Lietuvos Rytas asked Adamkus whether he felt in Warsaw that relations between Poland and Lithuania had currently soured, especially after the conservative and possibly nationalistic Law and Justice party had come to power. The former president answered that, on the contrary, he had been received well. Adamkus noted that he had been the only speaker to be given an unlimited time slot for his speech. Later, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, an important Polish politician and the twin brother of late former Polish president Lech Kaczynski, cited Adamkus during his speech, which was a sign of respect.

Adamkus, who speaks Polish, had a chance to speak personally with Andrzej Duda just before the official lunch at the conference. Adamkus told Lietuvos Rytas “I expressed my regrets for the somewhat cold current bilateral relations. I said that our relations went down by two steps, but it has happened not because of different interests, but only because of the issues of national minorities. I pointed out that these differences are easy to overcome, because the Polish minority in Lithuania has the best conditions in any foreign state for national education and cultural education. At the end of the conversation I expressed a hope that, under his leadership, Poland will again be able to climb those two steps back. President Duda fully supported my position and said it was his sincere desire also.”

The conference had been dedicated to the decade when Lech Kaczynski, who later was killed in the Smolensk plane crash, became the president of Poland.