No more “naive” gun purchases. Poland imposes tough conditions on arms companies

If companies want to sell weapons to Poland, they must invest in the country and transfer technology, said Konrad Gołota, deputy head of the Ministry of State Assets, in an interview for Bloomberg. As he noted, Poland has so far been a “naive” buyer, especially of American weapons.

The Polish government's message to foreign companies is: “if you want to sell here, invest here” – emphasized Gołota in the conversation published on Tuesday.

He stressed, however, that the authorities were not only interested in placing production lines.

We need technology transfer. We must be part of the global supply chain, he emphasized.

According to the deputy minister, Poland has not yet used such an approach when purchasing weapons from the US, which was supposed to be a certainty “payment for security” for being under the U.S. umbrella. However, he added that this approach made Poland a “naive” buyer.

Poland as the region's arms hub

As Gołota said, Poland is an attractive place for investment because it is not a direct competitor to large corporations from other European countries, but it has large funds to spend, including: under the EU SAFE program, and a number of smaller and advanced companies. He noted that the Polish Armaments Group needs funds and technology transfer and assessed that it would be one of the main beneficiaries of SAFE.

– Only a few countries can offer such a wide range of cooperation – said Golota.

The question is whether you are ready to play by the new rules. If so, you are welcome here. If not, we will cooperate with someone else, he added.

Gołota, who is responsible for the arms industry at MAP, visited the USA last year, during which he met with representatives of American arms companies. As he said then, he sent a similar message to them, announcing the end of “being only a client” and encouraging “investment in Poland, but not one where we are a contractor for some simple activities, but where we create partnerships, joint ventures, where technology transfer comes to Poland.”

Oskar Górzyński (PAP)

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