Foreign Minister in line to visit Egypt and Tunisia

The trip would follow on from Sikorski’s meeting with rebel leaders in Libya in May.

Poland is currently operating a mission to help bolster the democratisation of the countries of Northern Africa in the wake of the so-called “Arab Spring.”

Tunisia and Egypt are both in the throes of seismic political changes, following popular revolutions that overthrew authoritarian rule earlier this year.

Sikorski would be the third Polish politician to visit Tunisia this year, following Solidarity icon Lech Walesa and fellow former opposition activist Bogdan Borusewicz, the latter now the incumbent Speaker of the Senate.

Former president Aleksander Kwasniewski, who played a prominent role as a mediator in the so-called Orange Revolution in the Ukraine, is also due to visit Tunisia in July.

Last week, a spokesman for Tunisia’s interim government confirmed 24 July as the date of the first election since January’s revolution. The election is to create an assembly that will draw up a new constitution for the country. (nh/jb)