In response to the changing international environment, the European Union is deepening cooperation with strategic partners. According to Dariusz Joński, a Member of the European Parliament from Civic Coalition, the EU has become more united in recent months, realised that it needs to rearm, and has begun looking for allies beyond its own borders. For both Brussels and Warsaw, defence, security, energy and economic cooperation are now at the centre of attention.
On 22 January 2026, the Treaty of Nancy entered into force — a Polish-French international agreement on enhanced cooperation and friendship. It had originally been signed on 9 May 2025 by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and French President Emmanuel Macron. The document creates a legal foundation for the development of Polish-French cooperation across a wide range of areas and is intended to generate new momentum for deeper ties in security and defence, the economy, energy, infrastructure, agriculture, culture, education and people-to-people relations.
“For us, the issue of security — including military, energy and economic security — is extremely important. France has, for the first time, signed a strategic agreement with a country that does not directly border it. Let us remember that France and the United Kingdom possess nuclear weapons. It is very important to stay close to countries that are strong militarily,” Dariusz Joński said.
According to data from the Federation of American Scientists, France is the world’s fourth-largest nuclear power, with about 290 nuclear warheads. The United Kingdom follows with 225. On 2 March 2026, President Emmanuel Macron announced that France wants to strengthen its nuclear deterrence and expand it to include other European countries. Russia remains the country with the largest nuclear arsenal, with around 4,400 warheads, followed by the United States with approximately 3,700. Together, these two countries account for the vast majority of the world’s nuclear weapons.
“We have good relations in the European Union with every country. Some are stronger and place greater emphasis on armaments and military power. Others have not treated it as such a priority because there was no need. I am glad that we have very good relations with France, but also with the United Kingdom. The British are helping protect our eastern border, and this is a country that has left the European Union,” the MEP said.
At present, around 150 British soldiers from the Royal Anglian Regiment are stationed near Ełk in north-eastern Poland, about 65 kilometres south of the Russian border. The group is part of a multinational contingent training for deterrence missions and the protection of Poland’s borders with Russia and Belarus.
“We also have very solid and good relations with Spain and Portugal, as well as with Germany. Our goal is not to look for an enemy within the European Union, because the enemy is on the eastern side. The goal is cooperation within the EU and strong transatlantic relations,” Joński stressed. “This is also about joint business. No one is hiding the fact — including the Americans — that they sell a great deal of equipment to Europe and to Poland. Some of it is produced only in the United States, for example the F-35 jets that will soon arrive in Poland.”
In 2020, Poland signed a contract worth USD 4.6 billion for 32 fifth-generation F-35 multirole aircraft for its Air Force. Polish pilots are already carrying out flights and training in the United States, and in March 2026 the air base in Łask completed certification for F-35 operations.
“At the moment, we are seeing a certain reshuffling in international relations, but it seems to me that the European Union has been more united for many months now — first after the pandemic, and then after Russia’s attack on Ukraine. Secondly, it understood that it needs to rearm. And that is good, because there is still time, though not much, and it needs to be done. Thirdly, it is also looking for allies outside the European Union,” the MEP said. “We have very good relations with Turkey, which is among the leading NATO countries in terms of equipment and troop numbers. But even if we look further afield, we also have increasingly strong — and today exemplary — relations with Canada, which, in light of its relations with the United States, has opened talks with the European Union and its member states.”
On 14 February 2026, Canada and the EU signed an agreement setting out the terms of Canada’s participation in SAFE, the EU’s Security Action for Europe instrument. Canada became the first non-European country to join the initiative.
As Joński argues, building alliances around the world also has a commercial dimension.
“The Mercosur agreement, setting aside the agriculture issues that we referred to the Court of Justice and where safeguards were introduced, is the largest trade agreement in the world. Now the European Union–India agreement will also be signed. Even the United States is watching and can hardly believe how quickly such cooperation is taking shape. They are already signalling that they will want to do the same,” he said. “In my view, the European Union is waking up from its lethargy. For many years there was calm, but now we know that time is gone for good. We must remember this both economically and in terms of defence.”
In January 2026, the European Union and India concluded negotiations on a free trade agreement. Trade between the two sides already exceeds €180 billion annually and supports nearly 800,000 jobs in the EU. The agreement is expected to deepen economic ties with one of the world’s largest economies and open access to a market representing nearly a quarter of the global population. It is also projected to double EU exports of goods to India by 2032, while eliminating or reducing tariffs on 97% of goods, generating savings of around €4 billion annually for EU exporters. Formal signing will follow the completion of legal procedures in both the EU and India.
