NATO Defense Ministers Meeting
12.02.2020
- Today we talked about the implementation of NATO decisions regarding deterrence and defense policy and about the preparedness initiative. There is a very large contribution of the Polish Armed Forces, both air and land forces, as well as in the maritime domain. I would like to recall NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg's words that our contribution in the domain of air forces declared during London Summit determined the success of this Summit - said Mariusz Błaszczak, Minister of National Defense.
On February 12th the head of the Ministry of National Defense participated in the meeting of NATO Defense Ministers in Brussels. The Wednesday session of the North Atlantic Council (NAC) was devoted i.a. to the security situation in the Middle East.
While discussing the security situation in Iraq, Minister Błaszczak announced that all defense ministers agreed that the NATO mission in this country would be maintained. Of course, we are waiting for the opinion of the Iraqi government - it will be of great importance. We want to effectively counter terrorist threats. This mission has a training character and it will stay this way. There are currently Polish soldiers in Iraq and they will remain there. We did not withdraw our contingent because we stick to the "together in, together out" principle. We show solidarity to our Allies, because we expect such solidarity in a potential crisis situation - said Minister Mariusz Błaszczak.
Minister Mariusz Błaszczak also held a bilateral meeting with US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper. We talked about Polish-American cooperation, about the presence of American troops in Poland and fulfilling the declaration signed by Polish and US Presidents last year – Minister Błaszczak informed. As he noted, one of the topics raised during the meeting was the DefenderEurope 20 exercise, which will begin soon and will be a test of swift deployment of American troops from the USA to Europe, and then of other Allied forces through Poland to the Baltic States. The exercises will test the interoperability of all NATO forces.
During his visit to Brussels, the head of the Ministry of National Defense talked about strengthening bilateral cooperations with the defense ministers of Ukraine, Italy, Romania and Croatia. After the meeting with the Italian defense minister, Minister Błaszczak announced that Poland will develop bilateral Polish-Italian cooperation in the area of air forces, and Polish pilots will benefit from the experience of Italian F35 pilots.
As Minister Blaszczak informed, all meetings were held at the request of the NATO partners. I perceive it as a testimony to Polish activity in NATO - he added.
The head of the Polish Ministry of Defense also participated in the meeting of the defense ministers of the Visegrad Group (V4) and the United Kingdom. The talks focused on the perspectives of cooperation after Great Britain left the European Union. We were assured that we will work to strengthen cooperation between Great Britain and the V4 Group. (...) We talked about how to maintain these relationships and strengthen them in the future - said Minister Mariusz Błaszczak.
Ministry of National Defence of Poland
