On Monday, June the 13th , at the Conference Centre of the Ministry of National Defence, the President of the Republic of Poland, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Andrzej Duda, and Mariusz Błaszczak, the Minister of National Defence, participated in the coordination briefing of the management staff of the Ministry of National Defence and the Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland.

"Today's meeting is an excellent opportunity to summarize the last two years of the Ministry of National Defence’s activity and to present plans for further development of the Polish Armed Forces. During the last  coordination briefing, which took place 3 years ago, none of us expected that the security environment, not only in the region, but also around the world, would have been changed so much. The coronavirus pandemic, the hybrid attack on Poland by the Lukashenka regime and, above all, the bandit attack by Russia on Ukraine, made us even more convinced of the essential and absolutely fundamental role of the armed forces in the security system. The COVID-19 epidemic made the Polish Army a key element of the state's crisis response system. The still ongoing hybrid attack by Belarus has shown that the Polish Army is capable of conducting almost all, even the most unexpected tasks"

- noted the head of the Ministry of National Defence.

"Based on the observation of what is happening beyond our eastern border, it confirmed what the government of Law and Justice and the head of the armed forces had been saying for a long time. Poland needs a large, well-equipped, modern and, above all, military capable of defending our borders on its own. The thesis which for years had been convincing us by the politicians of the Civic Platform and its supporters has also fallen. According to them, the army should be stationed in the west of the country and, in the event of an attack on Poland, recapture the areas occupied by the enemy"

- Minister Błaszczak emphasized.
 
The coordination briefing of the management of the Ministry, the highest military commanders and directors of organizational units of the Ministry of National Defence is used to summarize the implementation of tasks and define priorities for the ministry and the army for the oncoming months.

The Minister emphasized that the Act on the defence of the Matherland, adopted with the support of President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński, provided new opportunities for the development and growth of the potential of the Polish Armed Forces.

"The new regulations will enable, inter alia, increasing the defence budget to 3% of GDP and mobilizing the Armed Forces Support Fund. Therefore, our goal is to create a real deterrence potential, which we can build by increasing the number of the Polish Armed Forces to 300,000. soldiers"

- said the head of the Ministry of Defence.

"The army must be equipped with modern equipment, which is why we consistently modernize and replace the weapons used by our soldiers. We have commenced the next phase of the Wisła program, i.e. deliveries of a medium-range air defence system. We will buy another 6 batteries of this system. We will also order 500 Himars system launchers, capable of hitting targets at the distances of up to 300 kilometres. The war in Ukraine has shown how important artillery is, so Poland must become an artillery power. We will also buy proven Korean production equipment, incl. infantry fighting vehicles, which will complement the Borsuk IFV, howitzers and K2 tanks. In the near future, we will sign contracts for deliveries, including mine destroyers, ZSSW remotely controlled turret systems integrated with Rosomak transporters, AW149 multi-role support helicopters, 2 observation satellites and tank destroyers"

- the minister pointed out.
 
The head of the Ministry of National Defence emphasized that the observations of the war in Ukraine confirmed the belief that the Polish Army have to be capble to deter and defend our country independently, from the very first day of the conflict, based on its own defence potential. Therefore, as he said, the further development of the Polish Armed Forces will be based on the "Model 2035" document which is being developed at the Ministry of National Defence, will be presented soon.

"Ensuring the security of Poland is the basic task for me and for President Andrzej Duda. Thanks to excellent cooperation, a common vision of the development of the Polish Armed Forces and mutual support, we are able to achieve this goal. The Act on the defence of the Matherland is only the beginning of the road towards a significant strengthening of our army. However, we are sure that we are going in the right direction"

- noted the head of the Ministry of National Defence.

"This is the most important briefing by the managers of the Ministry of National Defence and the armed forces for several years. Europe is in the worst security crisis since the end of the Cold War, I would even say it is in the worst crisis since the end of World War II. This crisis is caused by Russia's armed aggression against Ukraine, for which no one at the moment knows what it will mean for Europe and the world"

- said Andrzej Duda, President of the Republic of Poland.
 
During the briefing, the president emphasized that actions had been taken to strengthen the armed forces.

"A modern army should not only be modern, but also much more numerous than it is today. It was the satisfaction that I signed the  Act on the defence of the Matherland, increasing defence expenditure and giving opportunities to increase the size of the army and build reserves. I expect the assumptions of the act to be systematically implemented"

 - noted the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces
 
The president also emphasized that he supported the efforts of the minister of national defence related to the acquisition of modern combat systems that take into account the needs of a high delivery rate, but also participation in the modernization of the national defence industry.
 

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