According to Yonhap News,

Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back will head to Poland this week to attend a signing ceremony for a deal to export additional K2 battle tanks and hold talks with his Polish counterpart on expanding arms cooperation, the ministry said Wednesday.

Ahn will depart for the European country on Thursday for a three-day visit, according to Seoul's defense ministry. It marks his first overseas trip since taking office as the first defense chief of the Lee Jae Myung government.

Ahn's trip, arranged upon Poland's request, comes after South Korea's state arms procurement agency confirmed that Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz and Hyundai Rotem Co., the manufacturer of the K2 tanks, have wrapped up their final talks on the export deal.

"The follow-up K2 tank agreement is the biggest single arms export contract to date and will serve as an occasion to advance the mutually beneficial cooperative ties between the two countries, based on their partnership," the defense ministry said in a release.

The US$6.5 billion deal follows a series of deals Poland signed in 2022 with South Korean defense companies to acquire K2 tanks, K9 self-propelled howitzers and FA-50 light attack aircraft amid the country's defense spending increase after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

As part of the visit, Ahn will also hold talks with Kosiniak-Kamysz to discuss ways to strengthen their defense and arms industry cooperation as well as collaboration for peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in the region.


mlee@yna.co.kr

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Source: Yonhap News (July 30, 2025)