British PM visits Poland to launch talks on new defence and security treaty

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer visited Warsaw today for talks with his Polish counterpart Donald Tusk about a new defence and security treaty between the two countries.

The agreement is intended to enable the two countries to work more closely together against Russian disinformation and hybrid threats. It will also aim to tackle people smuggling gangs, secure energy supplies, and protect infrastructure as well as deepen ties between the Polish and British defence industries.

“With ever-increasing threats to Europe’s security, now is the time to take our partnership to the next level,” wrote Downing Street before Starmer’s arrival in Poland. “It is only through closer collaboration with our most important partners such as Poland that we’ll protect the UK’s national security.”

Speaking alongside Starmer after their meeting, Tusk said that Poland and the UK “have full trust in each other in these difficult times of geopolitical uncertainty”.

“We share the same views with the UK on the situation in Ukraine and Russian aggression,” he continued, and the two countries have “promised each other that we will cooperate very closely, share tasks and information”, he added.

Tusk, who was president of the European Council during the process of the UK leaving the European Union, also admitted that he still “dreams that Brexit will be replaced by Breturn”, but said he realised this “may be an illusion”.

Nevertheless, he said he had asked the European Council to hold an informal summit at which the British prime minister would be present. “I hope that this will not only be a symbolic reopening, but also a very concrete meeting in terms of the closest possible cooperation between the UK and the EU.”

The planned security and defence treaty with Poland is intended to be “a key pillar” of a wider British defence strategy following similar recent agreements with France and Germany, as well as Starmer’s trip to Ukraine this week. Tusk said he and Starmer hope to sign the treaty later this year.

One of its aims would be to tackle irregular migration on Poland’s border with Belarus, where Minsk and Moscow have been engineering a security and migration crisis.

“We know that Poland is facing gangs, criminal groups who are illegally smuggling people from Russia and Belarus,” said Starmer, speaking alongside Tusk. “In the case of these gangs, we must work together, focusing on security and defence.”

During the meeting, Starmer also confirmed the opening of a new UK-Poland Joint Programme Office in Bristol this year. It will be staffed by both countries and aims to help deliver Poland’s next-generation air defence system and coordinate further security projects.

After his meeting with Tusk, Starmer met with representatives of Polish business groups as well as the country’s economy ministers. Just ahead of the Starmer’s visit, Downing Street announced that Polish delivery giant InPost will invest £600 million in its rapidly growing UK operations.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: KPRM/Flickr (under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Agata Pyka

Agata Pyka is an assistant editor at Notes from Poland. She is a journalist and a political communication student at the University of Amsterdam. She specialises in Polish and European politics as well as investigative journalism and has previously written for Euractiv and The European Correspondent.