Defence and trade driving India-Poland partnership: Report
Defence and trade are the key drivers of the growing partnership between India and Poland, reflecting New Delhi’s broader re-engagement with Central and Eastern Europe, a report said.
IANS
Nov 8, 2026 09:12
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New Delhi, Nov 8 (IANS) Defence and trade are the key drivers of the growing partnership between India and Poland, reflecting New Delhi’s broader re-engagement with Central and Eastern Europe, a report said.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s visit to India from October 21-23 underscored the growing relations between New Delhi and Warsaw, The Diplomat reported.
"Tusk’s recent visit is reflective of India’s broader re-engagement with Central and Eastern Europe following the Cold War," the report said.
According to the report, India took part in its first summit with members of the Visegrad Group, or V4, when External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar met his Polish, Slovak, Czech, and Hungarian counterparts on the sidelines of the UNGA in September 2026.
"As India seeks to lessen reliance on Russia, it has sought to deepen defence relations with Poland. While India’s primary security partner in Europe has traditionally been Paris, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has facilitated a continent-wide industrial rearmament," it stated.
When the two countries upgraded their relationship to a “strategic partnership” in 2024, they announced in their 2024-2029 action plan to deepen defence industrial ties. In February 2026, the Polish Ambassador to India, Piotr Antoni Switalski, said India used Polish drones during Operation Sindoor, the report noted.
"Poland’s economic weight within Europe has increased significantly since it joined the EU in 2004, and it is now the continent’s fastest-growing economy. These developments have correlated with greater Indo-Polish economic relations," The Diplomat stated.
From 2015 to 2025, bilateral trade between the two countries increased from $2.2 billion to $6.3 billion, and India is the second-largest market for Polish companies within Asia, according to the report.
After the India-EU free trade agreement concluded in January 2026, Warsaw and New Delhi announced plans to double bilateral trade by 2030, with Poland eager to become a gateway for Indian businesses as they seek to expand into Central and Eastern European markets.
--IANS
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