WARSAW, Poland — The Polish government has unveiled plans to boost domestic landmine production following an announcement that the country, along with Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, would pull out the Anti-Personnel Mines Convention, also known as the Ottawa Treaty,
Polish Deputy Defence Minister Paweł Bejda said the country would launch production of the weapons in a bid to safeguard the country’s eastern borders with Russia and Belarus.
“We want these mines to be produced in Poland, we have such capacities. The issue at hand is to increase such capacities … and we treat equally the private defense industry and the state-owned one,” Bejda told local radio broadcaster RMF FM in an interview.
The Polish military needs landmines “in the range of several hundred thousand, even up to 1 million” units, he said.
Polish Deputy Prime Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz has stated the process of withdrawing from the convention will involve the country’s Cabinet, parliament and president, and end with a notification to the United Nations. Following the notification, the withdrawal procedure could take around six months, he said.
Asked for details on which companies could produce landmines, the deputy defense minister said that Poland’s state-run defense group PGZ will be involved in the manufacturing.
Meanwhile, Latvia is “looking into all possible options when it comes to strengthening Latvia’s deterrence and defense capabilities,” Latvian Defence Minister Andris Sprūds said in a statement.
The Baltic nation “must prepare as Russia continues to pose a serious threat to the region, regardless of how hostilities in Ukraine develop. Withdrawing from the Ottawa Convention has the potential to ensure the production of anti-personnel mines,” Sprūds said.
Jaroslaw Adamowski is the Poland correspondent for Defense News.
