Poland – In the last days of September, the US State Department announced the signing of a “$2 billion Foreign Military Financing (FMF) direct loan agreement to support Poland’s effort to modernize its armed forces. ”
The US administration’s press release stresses that
“Poland is a stalwart U.S. Ally, and Poland’s security is vital to the collective defense of NATO’s Eastern Flank.”
It goes on stating that “In addition to its central support role
in facilitating international assistance to neighbouring Ukraine,
Poland has demonstrated its ironclad commitment to strengthening regional security through its robust investments in defense spending.”
Poland is fulfilling “meeting the 2014 Wales Summit Defense Investment Pledge” of devoting at least 2% of a country’s GDP to the defense budget (Poland is now at 3%), and “plans to significantly expand the Polish Armed Forces.”
“Poland has divested its legacy Russian origin military equipment in favor of an ambitious multi-year, multi-billion-dollar defense modernization program; has concluded an Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) with the United States;
hosts Allied and U.S. forces, including the U.S.-led NATO Battlegroup and U.S. V Corps Headquarters (Forward); and actively participates in NATO missions across the region.”
According to the US State Department, “Loan proceeds will further advance Poland’s military modernization effort across a wide range of capabilities, substantially contributing to
strengthening the defense and deterrence of NATO’s Eastern Flank.”
The conclusion of this loan comes to confirm the words of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who recently explained that, having helped Ukraine by supplying it with weapons of Russian and Soviet origin, Poland would now focus on modernizing its own defense systems. To this end, Poland has signed big arms contracts with the USA and South Korea.
