Minister Bozinovic met Polish Minister Klich

Croatian and Polish defence ministers discussed the previous bilateral cooperation in the defence field, the contribution of the two countries to international peacekeeping operations, as well as the security situation in the region. Long-term cooperation between Croatia and Poland was assessed as extremely successful and intense, especially military police cooperation within the Multinational Military Police Battalion led by Poland.

In a media statement, Minister Bozinovic said he was pleased with the cooperation stressing that Poland has always supported Croatia in its accession to NATO, as well as the Croatian path to the European Union. “Poland will chair the EU in the second half of this year during which presidency, as I hope, Croatia will sign the pre-accession agreement with the EU”, Minister Bozinovic said. He stressed that on the meeting they discussed bilateral cooperation in defence field related to NATO membership and on cooperation to strengthen the Common European Security Policy, in which Croatia had its own active role by participating in peacekeeping missions. Also, they discussed joint participation in the peacekeeping mission in Chad and the development of EU battle groups. “As for NATO, we talked about the conclusions of the Lisbon Summit and the activities related to the reform of the Alliance, and about the most important joint activity of the two countries in the field, and that is the participation of members of the armed forces in the ISAF mission in Afghanistan, where Poland is among the largest force provider, while Croatia has been participating in the ISAF mission with up to 350 members of the Croatian Armed Forces”, Minister Bozinovic said.

He also noted that the meeting addressed the cooperation in the defence industry, especially in the production of weapons and military equipment, emphasizing that this year two important fairs would be held, one in Split and the other in Poland. “This is a great opportunity to present manufacturers of military equipment” Minister Bozinovic said, adding that in the defence industry, there were many opportunities for cooperation. “We have determined the working groups that will consider all forms of cooperation in this area that could be implemented on the markets of third countries outside Europe”, Minister Bozinovic concluded.

Polish Defence Minister Klich said he was very pleased to confirm previous successful cooperation with Croatia, since Croatia became a Polish ally in NATO. “I am sure that Poland and Croatia have a similar approach to defence and security challenges and that there is wide scope for cooperation between our two countries, particularly in the field of defence industry” Polish Minister Klich said. He stressed that this was important time for both countries, since conclusions adopted at the Lisbon summit have been currently implementing. He also said that Poland supports the Croatian accession to the EU, and hopes that Croatia will successfully complete negotiations.

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