On February 27, 1997, President Petyr Stoyanov of Bulgaria paid a visit to Sejm Marshal Jozef Zych.
The two talked about parliamentary contacts, the problems of the Polish community in Bulgaria and a grain loan from Poland to Bulgaria. Zych voiced satisfaction with the fact that the children of Poles living in Bulgaria can learn Polish in school and that the Poles can act in their associations. The Marshal said he expected new prospects of cooperation between the parliaments of the two countries to open up after the April elections in Bulgaria.
Referring to the grain loan, President Stoyanov recalled the Latin proverb saying that he who gives fast, gives twice.
The Bulgarian President was also received by Senate Marshal Adam Struzik.
Stoyanov and Struzik talked about Polish food aid for Bulgaria, Bulgaria's debt to Poland and the problems of the Polish minority in Bulgaria.
Petyr Stoyanov declared that Bulgaria is pursuing an Euro-Atlantic foreign policy line.
A day earlier, the Bulgarian President appeared before the Sejm Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Foreign Affairs and International Economic Relations Committee. The meeting was attended by Sejm Deputy Marshal Aleksander Małachowski.
Stoyanov told the committees that Poland could serve as a model for his country to follow with regard to economic as well as political matters and said that his country's goal was integration with Europe.
The Polish side was interested in such issues as:
- the problem of compensating the losses Bulgaria suffered as a result of the sanctions against the Yugoslavia;
- the question of Bulgaria's accession to NATO in the context of its earlier relationship with Russia;
- the possibilities of development of economic cooperation between Poland and Bulgaria.
Stoyanov voiced the conviction that Bulgaria's future membership of NATO will free Bulgarian-Russian relations of any ambiguities.
As for relations between Sofia and Warsaw, in Stoyanov's opinion they are free of "the hard historic legacy" and are based on friendship, understanding and solidarity. The Bulgarian President also spoke about the internal situation in his country, stressing the economic problems and the need of urgent structural reforms.
Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Denmark, paid a visit to Sejm Marshal Jozef Zych on March 4, 1997.
The main topic of the exchange were the contacts between the parliaments of the two countries. Rasmussen suggested closer cooperation at committee level.
The Danish Premier was also received by Senate Marshal Adam Struzik, with whom he discussed problems of parliamentary cooperation as well as the question of Poland's accession to NATO and EU and the transformations in Poland's agriculture.
A group of eleven U.S. Congress staffers, i.e., advisers and experts to members of the House of Representatives and senators, was in Warsaw from February 19 to 22.
The aim of the visit was to get a better knowledge of the situation in Poland, Polish views on the enlargement of NATO and on the building of new architecture of European security, with special emphasis on actions serving the interoperability and compatibility of the Polish armed forces with the Alliance's forces; this is connected with the approaching debate and subsequent vote in U.S. Congress (the decision on the enlargement of NATO must be backed by a two-thirds majority in U.S. Senate).
The staffers were particularly interested in civilian control over the armed forces, the system of procurement of military equipment and the costs of NATO enlargement. During the visit at the Sejm, the staffers were received by Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee Bronisław Geremek, chairman of the Defence Committee Jerzy Szmajdziński, members of the Presidium and the chairman of the Sejm and Senate delegation to the North Atlantic Assembly, Deputy Longin Pastusiak, and chairwoman of the Economic Policy, Budget and Finance Committee, Deputy Wiesława Ziółkowska. During a visit to the 1st Armoured Brigade at Wesoła outside Warsaw, the staffers watched the troops during tactical training and studies the interoperability of the Polish Armed Forces and the NATO forces.
The visit was arranged by the Polish American Congress.