Poland’s defense leadership has been pushing hard on South Korea ties, with Mariusz Błaszczak, the head of the PiS club, arguing that the December 13 coalition has shown little forward momentum in defense cooperation with Seoul. He underlined that a central step to cement closer relations would be for Poland to produce K2 tanks domestically, a move he views as both strategic and symbolic for national security.
Asked to weigh in on Poland’s defense partnership with South Korea as President Andrzej Duda prepared for his forthcoming visit, Błaszczak stressed that during the PiS tenure relations had been notably intimate. He recalled a period when political leadership fostered unusually close ties in security matters, framing this as a benchmark for future collaboration.
He highlighted a series of concrete achievements stretched across a tight timeline. According to him, within six months Poland secured both K2 tanks and K9 self-propelled howitzers, a record driven by the Russian aggression in Ukraine and the disruptions caused by the ongoing war. He also cited the FA-50 aircraft, noting that imports were completed within a year and that these airplanes were already integrated into the Polish Air Force’s capabilities.
In his view, the current government has halted this momentum. He characterized the December 13 coalition as failing to advance even a single practical step toward closer defense cooperation with South Korea.
One of his core conclusions remained unequivocal: ensuring a close and reliable partnership with South Korea hinges on Poland’s ability to produce K2 tanks domestically. He argued that an order of 1,000 K2 tanks—far beyond the 180-tleet figure that had circulated—would solidify self-reliance and strengthen bargaining power in future defense deals.
Błaszczak asserted that the bottleneck lay in the Polish side failing to act quickly and decisively to finalize contracts. He warned that delays risk undermining security arrangements and the readiness of Poland’s armed forces, which he described as needing to stay large and equipped with modern weapons. He pointed out that the next year’s budget and the associated numbers were critical, asserting that the plan for funding, if not realized, would reveal a budget oriented toward electoral considerations rather than genuine homeland security needs.
He argued that if the plan called for 60 billion of the 180 billion zlotys total to come from the Armed Forces Support Fund, a financing mechanism that might rely on bonds, loans, or other instruments, failing to secure this funding within the year would cast doubt on the government’s commitment to strengthening defense capabilities in the immediate term.
The defense portfolio’s current leadership, Władysława Kosiniak-Kamysz, summarized the ministry’s outlook at the start of the month, noting that Poland would allocate 186.6 billion PLN to defense next year, equating to about 4.7 percent of GDP. He challenged his predecessors in the PiS era, arguing that they undervalued contracts worth roughly half a trillion zlotys and left a heavy financial footprint on the defense landscape.
With regard to the South Korea procurement dialogue, Kosiniak-Kamysz cited a recent visit by the Vice Minister for Armaments to Seoul, where discussions centered on the polonization of K2 tanks ordered by Poland. He described a plan to transition a portion of the production to Polish facilities and highlighted negotiatons that aimed to accelerate this process. He noted that the initial plan envisioned only partial polonization for the second half of the thousand tanks; in the latest tranche, they sought to ensure that one third of the next 180 tanks would be produced domestically. He framed these discussions as tangible gains from recent meetings and a clear signal that Poland was pressing for greater domestic involvement in key defense programs.
Overall, the exchange underscored ongoing disagreements over how best to balance defense readiness, industrial participation, and fiscal constraints as Poland navigates its defense modernization path in cooperation with South Korea and within a shifting European security environment.