The advance would amount to roughly PLN 28 billion (EUR 6.56 billion), representing 15 percent of the total requested.
Talks with the European Commission on the loan agreement are due to conclude this week, with a signing expected by late March or early April, she explained.
Meanwhile, Deputy Defence Minister Cezary Tomczyk said the government would present a fuller alternative funding plan within "the next several dozen hours," after President Karol Nawrocki vetoed legislation last week that would have formally implemented the EU's SAFE defence financing mechanism.
The government responded by passing a cabinet resolution on a programme branded Polska Zbrojna (Arming Poland), authorising the ministers of defence and finance to sign the loan agreement directly.
The state development bank BGK will take on the loan on behalf of the Armed Forces Support Fund, with the Treasury providing guarantees.
Around 90 percent of the funds are intended to be spent with Polish companies, across a supply chain of some 12,000 subcontractors linked to the Polish Armaments Group, as well as private firms in drone and space technology.
The veto complicates access to around PLN 7.1 billion (EUR 1.66 billion) earmarked for the Border Guard and Police under the original plan.
The government says it is working to find an alternative legal route to channel those funds.
(ał)
Source: PAP
Click on the audio player above for a report by Michał Owczarek.