The head of the foreign service started his two-day visit with an intensive series of meetings with representatives of international organisations based in Vienna: the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, as well as the United Nations Office and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

The talks focused on the organisations’ personnel policies and promoting Poles’ presence in their structures. Another important topic involved the challenges presented by Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, which affect the implementation of statutory objectives of multilateral organisations.

The head of the foreign service also met with Paolo Bernasconi, Director for Human Resources at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, to talk about the overall political situation in the context of Poland’s OSCE chairmanship and the organisation’s personnel policy.

In the light of challenges currently facing the international community, an important element of Arkady Rzegocki’s visit to Austria was his lecture at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna. Titled “Priorities of Poland’s Foreign Service in the context of current international challenges”, it brought together students of the diplomatic programme. The lecture was also an opportunity to meet with Director of the Academy Emil Brix to talk about the organisation of the Austrian and Polish school of diplomacy and prospects for establishing cooperation between the two countries’ diplomatic academies.

During a ceremony at the Polish embassy, the head of the foreign service presented Ambassador Emil Brix with the Bene Merito award, granted by the minister of foreign affairs of the Republic of Poland in recognition of Emil Brix’s exceptional contribution to the development of Polish-Austrian bilateral relations and his efforts to bring our cultures closer together. The laudation for the awardee was given by Professor Jacek Purchla.

An important item on the visit agenda was a meeting the head of the foreign service held in Vienna with Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal, Secretary General of the Austrian MFA. The diplomats discussed bilateral issues, cooperation in regional formats, Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, the achievements of Poland’s OSCE chairmanship, as well as challenges related to the processes of modernising the ministries of foreign affairs, recruiting candidates for the foreign service, and the evolution of training and staff evaluation processes. During the meeting, Head of the Foreign Service Rzegocki also addressed the urgent need to properly commemorate those killed in the KL Gusen concentration camp.

Poland’s efforts to keep alive the memory of the victims of the KL Gusen concentration camp were also the key element of the Polish official’s second day of his visit to Austria and the focus of his talks with Stephan Mlczoch, Director of the Department of Historical Policy at the Austrian Ministry of the Interior. The head of the foreign service pointed out that Poland attaches great importance to internationalising the process of constructing a memorial site situated at the 

former KL Gusen camp – a place where tens of thousands of victims from all over Europe, including a large part of the Polish intelligentsia, suffered and died.

During his visit to KL Mauthausen and KL Gusen, Head of the Foreign Service Arkady Rzegocki paid tribute to victims of the German Nazism and laid wreaths at the monuments to those killed in the camps. While in Gusen, he also met with Martha Gammer, President of the Gusen Memorial Committe (Gedenkdienstkomitee Gusen).

 

Łukasz Jasina
MFA Spokesperson

 

Photo: Kulhanek/BMEIA