You're reading: Ukraine, Poland to cooperate on defense projects in Asia, Africa and EU markets

Ukraine and Poland are planning to intensify bilateral military and technical cooperation, the acting director of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry's department for developments and purchases of arms and military equipment, Ihor Odnoralov, has said.

He said at the second conference of the Ukrainian-Polish forum for cooperation in the defense sector, which was held in Kyiv on Nov. 13-15, that Ukraine and Poland have unrealized potential in military and technical cooperation and that the intensification of the bilateral political dialog in the defense sphere should be the basis for switching it to the practical area.

“We have all grounds for that. In 2013, the defense ministries [of Ukraine and Poland] held three meetings at a high political level. The key position of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry is to switch military and technical cooperation from a scientific and theoretical to a practical level,” he said.

He said that joint programs for the modernization of arms and military equipment on the markets in North Africa and the Middle East could be considered as promising areas of defense cooperation.

Director of the Armament Policy Department at the Polish Defense Ministry Leszek Cwojdzinski said that Polish side also sees good opportunities in the field of intensifying military and technical cooperation in the joint modernization of weapons on the markets of third countries in Asia and North Africa. First and foremost, the issue can concern the aircraft and armored vehicles produced by the former Soviet Union, he said.

He said that the modernization of Mig-29s of the Polish Air Force at facilities in Ukraine, as well as Ukraine’s participation in the program to create new modifications of Sokol multi-purpose helicopters (W-3PL Gluszec and W-3PL/N), could be promising programs of cooperation.

An advisor to the Polish defense minister, Janusz Onyszkiewicz, in turn, said that the joint promotion of new weapons for the EU market could also be regarded as a promising area of bilateral military and technical cooperation.

“There is another market that we could enter together – Europe. The EU provided the possibility of purchasing arms for the EU countries outside the EU,” he said.

He also added: “These are ambitious plans. The signing of the Association Agreement [and DCFTA] between Ukraine and the EU will contribute to their implementation. Poland is striving to make it happen.”

“Ukraine is a strategic partner for Poland, and this is not a compliment or a beautiful phrase, but a political truth,” he said.

He expressed confidence of the further development of cooperation with Ukraine in the defense sector and added that “Poland, Europe and the entire region needs that.”