Poland’s president, Karol Nawrocki, has signed legislation allowing him to ratify a security and defence treaty with the United Kingdom, taking the agreement a step closer to entering into force.
The law was one of five signed on 4 November, his office said. It concerns a treaty signed by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and then British prime minister Keir Starmer on 27 May. The agreement covers mutual defence, cyber security and the protection of critical infrastructure, as well as broader economic and energy cooperation.
Signing the Polish law is not the same as ratifying the treaty itself. The law authorises a separate act of ratification by the president. The treaty says it will enter into force 30 days after the last notification by which the two countries inform each other that their respective internal procedures have been completed. The presidential announcement did not give a date for those remaining steps.
What the defence pledge says
The agreement says the two NATO allies will assist one another if either comes under armed attack, including by military means in accordance with Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty. It also reaffirms NATO as the foundation of their collective defence and calls for work with other allies to strengthen deterrence on the alliance’s eastern flank.
The wording should not be read as a new troop deployment or a separate promise of a particular response to an attack. When scrutinising the treaty in September, the House of Lords International Agreements Committee said it was unclear whether the mutual defence provision created substantive commitments beyond those already made under NATO’s Article 5. It asked the government for clarification.
The committee welcomed closer cooperation but also described the agreement as high-level and general. It raised questions about how the commitments would be put into practice and financed. Those questions are separate from Poland’s decision to authorise ratification.
Beyond military cooperation
The treaty builds on an earlier Polish-British defence and security agreement signed in 2017. It sets out plans for joint training, exercises and closer work between armed forces and defence industries. It also provides for dialogue on capabilities, research and technology, including cyber security and artificial intelligence.
Its national security provisions extend to protecting critical infrastructure on land and at sea. The two countries envisage sharing information and approaches to cyber and other security threats, where appropriate, and cooperating against serious organised crime, migrant smuggling and trafficking.
The agreement also covers economic resilience. It calls for discussion of supply-chain risks and cooperation on transport infrastructure that can serve both civilian and military purposes. On energy, it envisages closer work on diversification, clean energy and the security of energy infrastructure, including renewable and civil nuclear generation.
To oversee the relationship, the treaty provides for a senior-official coordination mechanism to review existing projects and consider new ones. It also envisages consultations between the two prime ministers every two years, alongside ministerial discussions on particular policy areas.
A separate defence plan
The legal step follows a three-year defence cooperation plan signed in Warsaw on 27 October by the two countries’ defence ministers. That plan is related to the wider partnership but is a different document from the legislation signed by Nawrocki.
The plan identifies work on air-defence missiles, drone and counter-drone technology, cyber resilience and maritime exercises. It also envisages closer defence-industrial cooperation. Those are areas for joint work, not evidence that each proposed capability has already been delivered.
Poland’s lower house passed the ratification bill on 18 September. The presidential signature advances the domestic process, while the treaty’s own notification and waiting-period provisions determine when the agreement can take effect internationally.
Featured image: AI-generated illustration.
