Mitt Romney on two-day visit to Poland

Mitt Romney (right) with PM Tusk; below, with Lech Walesa: photos - PAP/Adam Warżawa

The trip is part of a three-stage tour of UK, Israel and Poland.

After talks with PM Tusk, Romney, President Barack Obama's rival in the November presidential elections, met with former Polish president Lech Walesa, who formally invited him to visit Poland in a letter dated 4 July.

Romney is also to lay a wreath in nearby Westerplatte, where Nazi Germany attacked Poland at the start of WW II in September 1939.

Romney's itinerary for his foreign policy tour has been designed to emphasise what he sees as key differences between himself and President Obama on international relations.

He hopes to stress during talks in Gdansk, and tomorrow in Warsaw where he will meet President Bronislaw Komorowski,, what could be seen as an anti-Russian stance after accusing Obama last week of trying to appease the Kremlin by cancelling George W. Bush's plans for an anti-missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Romney also hopes to bolster the Roman Catholic vote in the November elections.

Gaffes

The Republican politician will be counting on the Poland leg of his trip going more smoothly than what was perceived in the British media to be a disastrous visit to London, where his criticisms of preparations for the 2012 Olympics drew a dismissive response from UK prime minister David Cameron and London mayor, Boris Johnson, both centre-right politicians that Romney would usually count as political allies.

While in Israel on Sunday, during the second leg of the tour, Palestinians accused him of undermining peace prospects after Romney called Jerusalem "the capital of Israel", ignoring their own claims to the city.

Even in Poland, as Romney was chatting to locals outside Gdansk Town Hall on Monday afternoon, a small crowd of protesters chanted “Obama, Obama”. (pg)