Senator the Hon Marise Payne
26 Aug 18
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Related ministers and contacts
Senator the Hon Marise Payne
Minister for Defence
Media contact
- Henry Budd (Minister Payne’s office) 0429 531 143
- Defence Media (02) 6127 1999
Mariusz Błaszczak
Polish Minister for National Defense
Release content
20 August 2018
Joint statement:
- Minister for Defence, Senator the Hon Marise Payne
- Polish Minister for National Defense, Mariusz Błaszczak
The Australian Minister for Defence, Senator the Hon Marise Payne hosted the Polish Minister for National Defense, Mariusz Błaszczak, today at Parliament House in Canberra. The Ministers emphasised a mutual desire to deepen and strengthen the Australia-Poland Defence relationship.
Australia and Poland share a friendship based on strong people-to-people links, shared democratic values and belief in the importance of multilateral engagement through the United Nations and other international fora.
Our defence relationship is underpinned by our experience working together under the NATO umbrella in Afghanistan and in the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS in Iraq.
Today, Minister Payne and Minister Błaszczak reaffirmed their mutual commitment to ensuring sustained efforts to project stability, fight terrorism and uphold the rules-based global order.
Minister Payne and Minister Błaszczak also agreed to explore a defence cooperation Memorandum of Understanding to further defence engagement between our two nations. Areas of potential future cooperation under this arrangement may include exchange on shared global security concerns, military training and education, and cyber security.