Cooperation with Arab countries established
2012-04-24

Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Minister Tomasz Siemoniak finished their visit in United Arab Emirates. Next, they will have meetings in Saudi Arabia.

Minister of Defence Tomasz Siemoniak visited United Arab Emirates as a member of delegation of the Prime Minister Donald Tusk. Despite the fact that the program of the visit focused on economic matters, defence matters were also discussed. – Minister Siemoniak stated summing up the meetings. He added that as United Arab Emirates control the Strait of Ormuz they are a very important country from cooperation of NATO with the countries of the region point of view (Istanbul Cooperation Initiative - ICI).

Establishing good relations with United Arab Emirates is also very important in the context of Polish armament industry – UAE are the fifth armament importer in the world (according to SIPRI) and their defence spending is comparable to Poland.
- Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates spend a lot of money on armament and they expect the highest quality. I think the wide offer of Polish armament industry comprises elements that can be interesting for these countries. – Minister Tomasz Siemoniak assessed in talk with Polish Press Agency.

In Dubai Business Forum was held in which representatives of Polish armament industry participated. – They started many interesting contacts and they were very active. I had opportunity to talk with them about it on Sunday during meeting organised by Polish Ambassador. – said Minister Siemoniak.

In his opinion, KTO “Rosomak” (AMV) are especially popular in the world. Everybody in the world who deals with defence matters knows the name “Rosomak”. – The Minister said. He added that Polish armament companies also want to offer helicopters and other aviation and electronic industry products such as radars to the Arab partners.

Some of these topics have been raised during meeting with Sultan Bin Saeed Mansoori. – Talks with UAE Minister of Economy mainly concerned energetic security but we also talked about UAE Air Forces equipment (they have F-16s and Mirage-2000) as well as plans of modernizing their Navy – Minister Siemoniak summarised. Next part of the trip of Polish politicians is Saudi Arabia.

Written by: Edyta Żemła

Photo: www.premier.gov.pl

  go back

go up