Poland’s Mariusz Błaszczak and Canada’s Anita Anand met in the Canadian capital Ottawa on Monday, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
Their talks focused on further support for Ukraine, cooperation within the NATO alliance, ways to strengthen cooperation in modernising both countries’ armed forces and between Canada’s reserve units and Poland’s territorial army, according to officials.
Support for Ukraine
At a joint news conference afterwards, Błaszczak and Anand “reaffirmed that both countries will continue to stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes,” the Canadian government said.
Canada’s defence minister “commended Poland’s outstanding support to Ukraine,” and “the leadership shown by the … Polish government to support Ukrainians,” according to officials.
Anand said Poland had been “a true leader in supporting Ukraine.“
Poland, Canada 'working together to support the security of Europe'
Poland’s Błaszczak, who was wrapping up a five-day visit to North America, described Canada as “Poland’s unfailing friend and ally” and said that the two countries were “working together to support the security of Europe.”
The Polish defence minister added that “Poland and Canada have a long history of cooperation,” with Canada "having been the first country to support Poland's NATO membership.”
Błaszczak thanked Anand “for Canada’s support for Ukraine," especially for its "clear position when it comes to the supply of Leopard tanks to Kyiv.”
He stated: “Your decision to donate this equipment made other countries decide to follow by forming a tank coalition.”
Błaszczak noted that Canadian soldiers were currently deployed on various missions to Poland, including to train Ukrainian tank crews on the use of Leopard 2 main battle tanks.
He told reporters that Poland and Canada had “boosted their relations through cooperation in the field of military training and technology.”
He said that he and Anand had discussed “further defence cooperation between Poland and Canada” and stressed that both countries “share a uniform position regarding threats.”
Błaszczak added: “I am sure we’ll have an opportunity to further deepen our mutual ties.”
'We’ll continue to strengthen our deeply valued defence partnership'
Meanwhile, Canada’s Anand said that the anniversary of the Allied victory over Nazi Germany in World War II on May 8 underlined “why alliances are important.”
She told reporters: “Again we must stop a dictator … We know we can count on Poland,” as quoted by the PAP news agency.
Anand “reaffirmed Canada’s ironclad commitment to the NATO Alliance, and highlighted Canada’s continued efforts to strengthen NATO’s eastern flank, notably by leading the multinational enhanced Forward Presence (eFP) Battle Group in Latvia,” the Canadian government said.
She welcomed “the significant defence capabilities that Poland contributes to eFP Battle Group Latvia and NATO’s deterrence and defence posture,” according to officials.
Anand later declared in a tweet: "We’ll continue to strengthen our deeply valued defence partnership."
Monday is day 439 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, gov.pl, canada.ca