Poland and Canada signed an agreement on May 27 to expand military and industrial cooperation under the European Union’s SAFE rearmament program, pledging closer defense ties through projects including weapons procurement and joint Arctic drills. Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz and Canadian Defense Minister David McGuinty signed the letter of intent during talks in Ottawa on May 26, Polish Radio reported, citing state news agency PAP.
“We will sell the best Polish military equipment to Canada,” Kosiniak-Kamysz said after the signing ceremony. He said the cooperation would focus primarily on exports of Polish-made drones and weapons systems produced by domestic defense firm WB Group.
Kosiniak-Kamysz also announced plans for deeper military cooperation, including joint exercises involving Polish, Canadian, and broader NATO forces in the Arctic. “Poland is taking responsibility for the whole of NATO, which is why we will send our soldiers to Polish-Canadian, more broadly NATO, Arctic exercises,” he said.
While Kosiniak-Kamysz was in Ottawa, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk was in London, where he and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer signed a new defense and security treaty on May 27 aimed at strengthening military cooperation and countering growing security threats across Europe, reported Polish Radio. “We want to defend Polish and British security; we want to protect cyberspace; we want to strengthen NATO as a whole—this is the essence of our treaty,” Tusk told reporters after the signing ceremony at the British Royal Air Force’s RAF Northolt base in west London. “Our military, technological and defense cooperation gives hope that this unique document, signed in this historic place, will truly make our future safer,” he added.
Speaking before departing for London, Tusk said Poland wanted to bring relations with Britain “to the highest possible level,” with a particular focus on security and defense against Russia.
The British government said the treaty would deepen defense cooperation in response to increasingly hostile threats across Europe, following similar agreements Britain has signed with France and Germany. According to London, the pact is expected to strengthen border security, combat organized crime and deepen defense cooperation between Britain and the European Union. “This treaty is the biggest step forward in our defense and security relationship with Poland in a generation, allowing us to confront modern security threats that may be less visible but no less dangerous,” Starmer said.
TASS notes that a year ago, Poland signed a new friendship treaty with France that also included provisions on mutual defense. In June, Warsaw is expected to sign a similar agreement with Berlin. As Gazeta Wyborcza noted, Warsaw, London, Berlin, and Paris are thus working to create a “NATO within NATO.”
