- Poland plans to significantly accelerate the modernization of its army.
- The Deputy Prime Minister emphasized the importance of defense investments regardless of the war in Ukraine.
- Kosiniak-Kamysz considers the peace negotiations a positive signal, but prioritizes defense.
Poland must continue and further accelerate the modernization of its military regardless of the outcome of the war in Ukraine, declared on Monday the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz. According to him, even possible progress in peace negotiations must not lead to a slowdown in the country’s defense investments, reports the Warsaw correspondent TASR according to the PAP agency.
The Minister of Defense responded to the statement of the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the head of the office of the Ukrainian President Andriy Jermak about the progress in the negotiations to end the war. Kosiniak-Kamysz called their joint statement a much more positive signal than the peace plan reports themselves and emphasized that Ukraine must remain a subject of this process, not its object.
At the same time, he pointed out that even the favorable development of the negotiations must not weaken Poland’s efforts to strengthen its defense. “We still have to arm, we have to build security,” he said. According to Kosiniak-Kamysz, Poland needs to accelerate the modernization programs of the army even more significantly. “I think that the acceleration will be necessary – even more and in a shorter time,” he said.
The joint statement by Rubio and Jermak came after a meeting in Geneva on Sunday, where the two sides discussed progress on the 28-point US plan for Ukraine. The same proposal was discussed on Monday by European Union leaders, including Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, at the EU-African Union summit in Luanda, Angola.
