The competitive advantage of deepening cooperation with South Korea is rooted in the fact that Korean companies simply have little domestic competition in some sectors of these markets. Nevertheless, Poland is one of the only countries in the region capable of and willing to become a Korean defense production hub due to its objectively strong potential as a regional leader and proper production facilities to be able to absorb the transfer of Korean technology.
The Korean military industry has been determined to enter the Polish and CEE markets for some time. Hyundai Rotem had already presented its offer of K2PL battle tanks in 2018 during the International Defense Industry Exhibition in Kielce, Poland . Nevertheless, only Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine finally triggered this state-to-state cooperation.
Neither China nor Russia—as the two major regional adversaries for Seoul and Warsaw in their respective areas—have commented on the recently intensified Korean-Polish defense relationship. Even so, it is clear that these developments run against Beijing’s and Moscow’s interests, if only from a military perspective.
The Polish-Korean defense relationship has every potential to become a win-win situation, with Warsaw boosting its military potential and reviving its heavy military industry, on the one hand, and Seoul solidifying its position in the European and global defense markets, on the other. Furthermore, strong political and military ties have already given rise to increased economic cooperation between the two sides, especially in the energy sector.