Lloyd Austin said on Friday at the start of a meeting with Mariusz Błaszczak that he hoped to renew the defence procurement reciprocity agreement between the US and Poland which would deepen industrial cooperation between the two countries "now and in the future".
Michael Reynolds/PAP/EPA

An agreement to deepen cooperation between the defence industries of Poland and the US would be signed on Friday, the US secretary of defence announced at the beginning of a meeting with Poland’s defence minister in Washington D.C.

Lloyd Austin said on Friday at the start of a meeting with Mariusz Błaszczak that he hoped to renew the defence procurement reciprocity agreement between the US and Poland which would deepen industrial cooperation between the two countries “now and in the future”.

He also referred to the role of Poland in giving assistance to Ukraine by mentioning that, two weeks ago at a meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group in Ramstein, Germany, once again Poland had showed that it was a leader in helping Ukraine to increase its military capabilities and added that without Poland’s “extraordinary contribution” it would not have been possible to do so much to defend Ukraine against the brutal aggression of Russia.

Mariusz Błaszczak expressed his conviction that Poland’s cooperation with the US in this matter would continue until the “Ukrainians are victorious.”

The defence minister also noted that elements of the permanent presence of US troops were a key enchancement of Nato deterrence in the region.

Speaking about the purchases of modern armament systems, such as HIMARS and Patriot missile systems, he said that he hoped that they would “pave the way” for deep cooperation between Polish and US defence industries in order to “ensure the maintenance of US-made military equipment for the Polish army.”