New Zealand
Diplomatic relations between Poland and New Zealand were established on 1 March 1973.
Political cooperation
Historical view
Officially, the history of Poles in New Zealand started in the 18th century, with Captain Cook’s second trip to this land on H.M.S. Resolution in 1772-1775. Accompanying James Cook were two notable botanists Johann (Jan) and his son Georg (Jerzy) Forsters, both of Polish origins. The first large group of Polish settlers came to New Zealand on the ship Friedeburg, which left Hamburg on 19 May 1872 and arrived in Lyttelton on 30 August 1872. These first Poles settled in the Christchurch area. They worked hard draining the wastelands and making them into market garden lands. The next ship bringing Polish passengers was Palmerston, which sailed from Hamburg to Port Chalmers between 29 July and 6 December 1872. The majority of first Poles settled in the Otago region, near Dunedin and also in Taranaki in the North Island, primarily in Inglewood.
Poland has maintained consular relations with New Zealand since the 1930s. In September 1940, August Zaleski, Foreign Minister of the wartime Polish Government-in-Exile, anticipating significant waves of migration of Poles to the British Dominions, proposed the establishment of Consulates in Australia and New Zealand. These were opened in Sydney and Wellington in 1941. Kazimierz Wodzicki was appointed the Consul General to New Zealand.
New Zealand Prime Minister Peter Fraser and his government agreed to offer temporary hospitality - until the end of the war - to a group of 733 Polish children and 102 caregivers. As a result of historic turmoil, majority of them made New Zealand their home.
Poles and New Zealanders fought together against Germany in World War II on several fronts, most notably in the Battle of Britain (1940) and Battle of Monte Cassino (1944). New Zealand pilots were amongst the Western Allies who supported the Warsaw Uprising in 1944.
Diplomatic relations with London-based Polish Government-in-Exile ceased in 1945.
New Zealand did not maintain any diplomatic relations with Poland until 1965. In 1966, the Consulate General of the Polish People’s Republic was opened in Wellington. On 1 March 1973, official diplomatic relations between Poland and New Zealand were established at the embassy level.
From 1974 the Polish Ambassador to New Zealand was accredited from Australia and resided in Canberra, while the Embassy in Wellington was managed by a chargé d’affaires a.i. On 31 May 1982, activities of the Polish Embassy in Wellington were suspended. The Polish diplomatic presence was reactivated in Wellington in March 1987.
Political cooperation after 1989
Until the end of the 1990s, the Polish Embassy in Wellington, then subject to the Ministry of Foreign Trade (Office of the Commercial Counsellor), was headed by a chargé d’affaires a.i.
Since 2004, the Polish Embassy in New Zealand has been maintained at the ambassadorial level with the Polish Ambassador resident in Wellington. Before this time the ambassador was accredited from Canberra.
Between 1973 and 1993, the New Zealand Ambassador was accredited to Poland from Austria and until 2004 from Germany. The New Zealand Embassy in Warsaw officially opened in April 2005.
From 1 May 2004, Poland does not require visas from citizens of New Zealand for tourist stays of less than 90 days. As from 1 April 2005, New Zealand does not require visas for Polish citizens under the same conditions.
In New Zealand there are two consulates headed by honorary consuls: in Auckland (since 1999) and Christchurch (since 2011).
Over the years, following political changes in Poland, the exchange of official visits between the two countries has intensified. New Zealand Prime Ministers have visited Poland. Ministers of Foreign Affairs and other Government Ministers from both countries exchange visits. Political consultations have been maintained on regular basis on the level of the deputy ministers. In March 2023 Undersecretary of State at the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Wojciech Gerwal visited New Zealand marking as well 50th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relationship. The first official visit to New Zealand by the President of the Republic of Poland Andrzej Duda took place in August 2018.
The two countries work jointly on the parliamentary level. Marshals of the Polish Sejm and Senate and Speakers of the New Zealand Parliament exchange regular visits. Both Parliaments have established Parliamentary Friendship Groups.
Poland and New Zealand work together bilaterally as well as in multilateral frameworks. New Zealand and Poland cooperate in international forums such as the United Nations (both countries are founding members), OECD, WTO and ISAF/NATO (in February 2018 New Zealand and NATO signed the Individual Partnership and Cooperation Programme). Both countries are part of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) and the ASEAN Regional Forum (New Zealand and the EU).
History of Poles in New Zealand
Polish Pahiatua Children
Economic cooperation
Economic and trade cooperation is of vital importance for the development of mutual relations. Both countries support further intensification of contacts between companies and business people.
Trade missions and official visits on all levels, including the New Zealand Prime Minister and the President of Poland - have been exchanged since early ‘90s. More recently, in 2009, Poland’s National Chamber of Commerce organised a trade mission to New Zealand with representatives of cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, agri-food, information technology and energy sectors.
New Zealand Trade and Enterprise visited Poland in May 2012 to research Polish market potential. Many possibilities were identified, mainly in agriculture.
In April 2015, fifteen Polish companies from the green technology sector and Poland's Ministry of Environment visited New Zealand to participate in a Go Green Expo in Auckland. In September 2023, the delegation of eight companies- awarded in GreenEvo programme - presented new leading green technologies from sectors such as renewable energy, waste and water management and smart cities.
Polish meat sector, including six producers, Union of Producers and Employers of Meat Industry and market experts participated in the Fine Food fair in June 2016 in Auckland, as part of the European Meat – tradition, quality and taste campaign.
A Polish – New Zealand Business Association POLANZ was established in March 2015 in New Zealand, under the patronage of the Polish Ambassador, to promote cooperation between businesses from Poland and New Zealand, and to encourage and stimulate interest in trade, investment, and culture between the two countries. Since its inception, POLANZ has held several successful events promoting the Polish economy, highlighting leading exports, namely green housing technologies and building and construction.
Recently, the volume of trade between Poland and New Zealand has been steadily increasing from year to year. In the last decade Poland has recorded a surplus in trade with New Zealand. Poland’s exports to New Zealand are dominated by electromechanical industry products, medicaments, pork meat, and electrical appliances. New Zealand goods most commonly imported into Poland are frozen fish, dairy products, wine, wool and sheep meat.
Cultural cooperation
Poland and New Zealand have been culturally linked long before the establishment of official diplomatic relations. More recently, Polish musicians have been performing on various New Zealand scenes. Polish conductors have led the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra (Jacek Kaspszyk, Antoni Wit), organists have played local organs (Gedymin Grubba, Witold Zalewski), artists participated in big international projects, such as No Man’s Land commemorating World War I (Jolanta Kossakowska and others) or festivals and congresses (Artur Dutkiewicz Trio at the Wellington Jazz Festival 2015, Warsaw Village Band at WOMAD, Marcin Murawski at the 44th International Viola Congress in Wellington). Poland’s great pianists and guitarists (Marek Pasieczny) had numerous opportunities to hold workshops for students of the New Zealand School of Music. Some of them had a privilege to perform on the grand Bechstein that once belonged to Ignacy Jan Paderewski and today is homed at the Whittaker's Music Museum on Waiheke Island (Rafał Łuszczewski, Artur Dutkiewicz).
At the invitation of the New Zealand International Festival of the Arts in 2010, TR Warszawa theatre presented TEOREMAT, directed by Grzegorz Jarzyna. To highlight the 250th anniversary of public theatre in Poland and 250 years of the National Theatre in Warsaw, in October 2015, the Polish Embassy in Wellington invited Leszek Mądzik’s Visual Stage alternative theatre of the Catholic University of Lublin to perform the premiere of Furrow II (Masks) at The Body Festival in Christchurch.
The Polish Embassy promotes Polish writers and translators visiting New Zealand and supports local writers and poets of Polish origins and authors of books about Poland by organising book launches, competitions and other promotional events.
Polish movies of different genres are often screened in New Zealand as part of locally held festivals, both large and small. The ever-popular New Zealand International Film Festival occasionally presents Polish productions (The Mill and the Cross, dir. Jerzy Majewski, In Darkness, by Agnieszka Holland, animations The Lumberjack by Paweł Dębski, Platige Image productions, All These Sleepless Nights by Michał Marczak, The Innocents by Anne Fontaine, The Lure by Agnieszka Smoczyńska, Cold War by Paweł Pawlikowski). The Polish Embassy in Wellington also organises screenings of titles from Poland. New opportunities have been created for Poland - New Zealand cooperation in film by a new intergovernmental agreement that was signed in Warsaw on 21 October 2015. The Wellington Polish Film Festival, currently named the New Zealand Polish Film Festival has been organised since 2016. The festival’s aim is to present a rich offer of Poland's latest cinematographic productions as well as classic artworks by respected Polish directors.
Displays of works by Polish artists and those showcasing respected Poles and Polish arts have been organised throughout the years (Joseph Conrad Korzeniowski, Czesław Miłosz, Polish Poster School). Exhibitions showing historic events and Polish perspectives are held on regular basis around New Zealand. Polish designers have been awarded in New Zealand top international competitions such as World of Wearable Arts (Ewelina Kosmal, Nika Danielska) and the iD Dunedin Fashion Week (Artur Stec).
Sport is a common worldwide platform for creating a universal language between nations. Polish teams and individuals have represented their homeland in New Zealand on many occasions.
Cooperation in the field of science
Cooperation between the Polish and New Zealand educational institutions is expanding. In the last few years, the signing of new cooperation agreements has been observed as well as an increase in the exchange of study visits.
A student exchange programme, successfully developed between Poland’s leading and oldest business school, the Warsaw School of Economics and Victoria University of Wellington, is based on a bilateral agreement providing for a semester of study at a partner university. The principle of the programme is the recognition of study abroad as part of the studies at the home institution.
The Warsaw School of Economics and the University of Otago exchange their students in the frame of the Partnership in International Management (PIM) network. Additionally, since 2013, Warsaw-based Kozminski University has been linked through an international student exchange agreement with the Waikato Institute of Technology in Hamilton. All schools participate in the ERASMUS+ programme.
There are scholarships and extra funds available for selected students to help with the exchange programme through the Warsaw School of Economics as well as VUW. Additionally, the Valerie & John Roy-Wojciechowski Award is available each year for Victoria University’s students with Polish roots who plan to study at Warsaw’s SGH.
In 2014, Poland joined the New Zealand-led Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases initiative. The Alliance is focused on research, development and extension of technologies and practices that help deliver ways to grow more food and more climate-resilient food systems without growing greenhouse gas emissions.
Poland and New Zealand are focused on building relationships between their think-tanks and NGOs. In July 2015 a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs (NZIIA) and the Polish Institute of International Affairs (PISM). Both parties have agreed to hold joint conferences and seminars, mutual consultations and exchange of experts, implementation of joint research projects as well as exchange of research results and publications. On the occassion of the 50th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations between Poland and New Zealand, New Zealand International Review , made its volume 48, No 3 for May/June 2023 focused on the collaboration and partnership between countries.
During his visit to New Zealand, the President of Poland Andrzej Duda together with the New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern witnessed the signing of two other partnership agreements, such as the Memorandum of Understanding between the Department of National Security, Faculty of International and Political Studies of the Jagiellonian University of Krakow and the Centre for Defence and Security Studies at Massey University of New Zealand and the Academic Cooperation Agreement between the Faculty of Political Science and International Studies of the University of Warsaw and the Centre for Strategic Studies at Victoria University of Wellington.
Information about tertiary education options in New Zealand
Recognition of academic qualifications
Polish institutions operating in New Zealand
Materials
Presentation "Poland & New Zealand during WW2"PL_NZ_at_WW2.pdf 5.16MB I. Paderewski - Pianist and Patriot - New Zealand Chapter
Paderewski_FINAL.pdf 2.46MB