At first, we were focused in Poland on this great wave of spontaneous help of Ukraine and Ukrainians who were in need. Later, this help began to be more and more targeted and more and more institutionally enclosed. – From the beginning, she is strongly based on mutual relations, on the one hand a very high willingness to help from the Polish side, on the other hand, a very large openness of the Ukrainian side. Nevertheless, we say it openly – there was an element of mutual distrust, which resulted from history, and that sometimes this matter was played politically, but also from the fact that we really do not have an excessively rich history of this type of relationship -emphasizes Deputy Minister Konrad Gołota, who took part in the 17th edition of the Baltic Business Forum organized by the Polish-Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce.
Trust in the relations of Poland and Ukraine is the basis and source of mutual benefits
–For many months, I have been observing in various areas the entry of Polish-Ukrainian relations to the level above, I am thinking about a certain maturity, in which the foundation is mutual trust in many aspects. This applies to defense. It must be said that Ukraine’s eyes were previously more directed to the United States. In our Polish strategies we also focused on relations with the USA. Together with the new American administration, various certainty was called into question and when alternatives began to be sought, it turned out that two neighbors – Poland and Ukraine – who looked at each other so far did not quite notice, noticed much greater potential for cooperation – describes Konrad Gołota.
As he notes, we have in the European Union a few very strong economies with a very developed arms industry, such as German, French, Italian, and they will certainly be very active, but in the policy of the entire European Union it is Poland who belongs to the leaders giving tone. – What we want as Poland today is to find cooperation fields, where we take part in joint projects, where we help Ukraine, but also find the effect of synergy – explains the deputy minister of state assets.
Drona is a good field for Polish -Ukrainian cooperation
An example would be cooperation on projects for the production of innovative drones. Ukraine is very advanced in this area, but its production powers are limited. – It should be remembered that the technology is rushing: a drone produced six months ago – today it can be a bit outdated, the battlefield, soldiers’ training system and drone use system are changing so dynamically. That is why today we talk very intensively in many fields – both private business and state business, and at the government level – on cooperation in the area of drone solutions. This is a transfer of technology, these are Ukrainian factories, Ukrainian companies, also on the Polish side, which gives them security, and Polish and Polish entrepreneurs give a number of benefits – says Konrad Gołota. And he points out that in such a system we use very large production powers of the Polish economy in the realities of slowing down in some European countries.
The minister also says a lot about the great possibilities of using innovations used today in the defensive industry in the realities of peace and about the great potential of new technologies in building a new, modern Ukraine – a close economic partner of Poland. The huge benefits for Ukraine and Poland may also result from sharing experiences in strategic areas in which cooperation was so far – wrongly – disproportionate for purposes and possibilities. It is also, and perhaps above all, that the huge arms expenses in both countries, forced by Russia’s criminal aggression, pay off in the conditions of peace.
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