Poland deepens Asian ties

Poland has moved in one week to upgrade ties with South Korea and Japan, linking its European security push to partners in East Asia. (euronews.com) On April 13 in Seoul, Prime Minister Donald Tusk and President Lee Jae-myung raised Poland-South Korea relations to a comprehensive strategic partnership. The summit was the first visit by a Polish prime minister to South Korea in 27 years. (euronews.com) The South Korea leg centered on a $44.2 billion defense framework signed in July 2022, covering K2 tanks, K9 self-propelled howitzers, FA-50 aircraft and Chunmoo rocket launchers. Lee said the cooperation now includes joint production, technology transfer and training in Poland. (euronews.com) On April 15 in Tokyo, Tusk and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi also decided to elevate Poland-Japan ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership. They followed the summit with a signing ceremony and a joint statement. (japan.kantei.go.jp) That Japan move built on a February 28, 2025 action plan running through 2029, signed by Foreign Ministers Radosław Sikorski and Takeshi Iwaya. The plan listed defense industry, nuclear energy, transport infrastructure, space cooperation and agri-food trade among the priority areas. (gov.pl) The written Japan-Poland action plan says security in Europe and the Indo-Pacific is “inseparable” and ties Russia’s war in Ukraine to North Korea’s military cooperation with Russia. It also points to closer work through the Japan-European Union partnership and Japan-North Atlantic Treaty Organization cooperation. (mofa.go.jp) South Korea’s government has framed Poland as its main economic foothold in the region. In March 2025, Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul said Poland was South Korea’s fifth-largest trading partner in the European Union and South Korea had become the largest Asian investor in Poland as of 2024. (mofa.go.kr) Japan’s economic agenda with Poland has also widened beyond diplomacy. A November 2024 memorandum between Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and Poland’s industry ministry set cooperation on nuclear supply chains, small modular reactors and high-temperature gas-cooled reactor research. (meti.go.jp) Tusk’s April trip shows Warsaw using Asian partnerships for two tracks at once: weapons and industrial capacity with Seoul, and security, nuclear and infrastructure links with Tokyo. The next test is whether those summit declarations turn into contracts, production lines and joint projects in Poland. (euronews.com)