Defence Minister hosts Polish counterpart at Allied Rapid Reaction Corps
Defence Minister Mark Lancaster and Under Secretary of State Tomasz Szatkowski have visited the UK's Allied Rapid Reaction Corps Headquarters (HQ) and Salisbury Plain.
Defence Minister Mark Lancaster and Polish Under Secretary of State Tomasz Szatkowski. Crown Copyright.
Following Mr Lancaster’s visit to Poland in August 2017, the Polish Under Secretary of State has been in the UK for a two-day visit to discuss plans for the continued close defence relationship between the two countries.
The pair visited the UK’s leading contribution to NATO, the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps. The high readiness force staff includes two Polish nationals, as well as UK nationals and personnel from 21 NATO countries.
Minister for the Armed Forces Mark Lancaster said:
Our defence cooperation with Poland continues to go from strength to strength. We recently signed a defence treaty together, only the second such treaty the UK has signed with another EU country, signifying the importance of our relationship. We remain entirely committed to the security of our friends in Europe.
We are allies together in NATO and this visit has shown how our troops work side by side within the alliance to protect our interests.
The UK has deployed 150 military personnel to Poland as part of NATO’s Enhance Forward Presence (eFP) in the region. Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson visited these troops in December.
As well as visiting the UK’s leading NATO high-readiness headquarters, the Defence Minister and his Polish counterpart commemorated veterans at the Polish War Memorial and witnessed a Ground Based Air Defence demonstration at Salisbury Plain. They also held a series of bilateral talks following on from the successful signing of the new defence treaty in December.