US, Poland to deepen defence industry partnership says US defence secretary
An agreement to deepen cooperation between the defence industries of Poland and the US was signed on Friday, Poland's defence minister announced after a meeting with the US secretary of defence in Washington D.C.
Lloyd Austin said at the start of a meeting with Mariusz Błaszczak that he hoped the defence procurement reciprocity agreement between the US and Poland would deepen industrial cooperation between the two countries "now and in the future".
"There is a greater chance now to make use of this reciprocity, and I am sure that the Polish defence industry will do this," Błaszczak said.
Lloyd Austin referred to the role of Poland in giving assistance to Ukraine by mentioning that, two weeks ago at a meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group in Ramstein, Germany, once again Poland had showed that it was a leader in helping Ukraine to increase its military capabilities and added that without Poland's "extraordinary contribution" it would not have been possible to do so much to defend Ukraine against the brutal aggression of Russia.
Minister Błaszczak expressed his conviction that Poland's cooperation with the US in this matter would continue until the "Ukrainians are victorious."
The defence minister also noted that elements of the permanent presence of US troops were a key enhancement of Nato deterrence in the region.
Speaking about the purchases of modern armament systems, such as HIMARS and Patriot missile systems, he said that he hoped that they would "pave the way" for deep cooperation between Polish and US defence industries in order to "ensure the maintenance of US-made military equipment for the Polish army."
