Polish president says he will meet privately with Trump in New York

FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump is greeted by Polish President Andrzej Duda in Warsaw, Poland, July 6, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo

WARSAW (Reuters) – Polish President Andrzej Duda said on Wednesday that he would meet privately with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during his visit to New York.

Nationalist Duda, whose term in office expires in 2025, was one of Trump’s preferred international partners during his presidency.

“I was invited by Donald Trump to his private apartment, so to speak… this is simply a private meeting in connection with my presence here in New York,” Duda told reporters in New York.

FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump arrives for a joint news conference with Poland’s President Andrzej Duda in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, U.S., June 24, 2020. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo

“We will talk about our cooperation… We just know each other as people, as two, I can say in a sense, friends.”

Trump, who is on trial in New York over a hush money payment to a porn star, is in a tight race against President Joe Biden, a Democrat, ahead of the November presidential election.

Many European leaders have long been nervous that another Trump presidency would mean waning U.S. support for Poland’s neighbour Ukraine and the NATO military alliance.

(Reporting by Alan Charlish and Karol Badohal; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)