NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Polish counterpart Donald Tusk held wide-ranging bilateral talks at Hyderabad House in New Delhi on Thursday, agreeing to deepen cooperation in defence, space and nuclear energy and setting a shared target of doubling bilateral trade to around $12 billion by 2030.
The meeting, part of Tusk's three-day visit to India from October 21 to 23, was accompanied by a delegation of about 100 business leaders — a signal of how strongly Warsaw now views India as a partner. The talks covered trade and investment, technology, critical minerals, coal gasification, semiconductors, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, along with a counter-terrorism dialogue and a new Defence Industry Dialogue between the two countries.
Speaking after the talks, Modi announced the trade-doubling ambition alongside the new institutional mechanisms. "Today we have agreed to deepen ties in defence, space, and nuclear energy. We invite Polish companies to engage in co-development and co-production with India in all these strategic areas," he said.
The invitation to Polish firms to co-develop and co-produce with India in strategic sectors is significant. It moves the defence relationship beyond a simple buyer-seller arrangement toward joint development — a model India has increasingly sought with partner countries under its push for indigenous manufacturing and technology transfer. "In critical minerals and coal gasification too, we will develop new partnerships with Polish expertise," Modi added.
Critical minerals emerged as one of the central themes of the talks. Both leaders acknowledged that securing supply chains for minerals and strategic resources has become a political and economic imperative. Tusk put it plainly: "We are very aware of political threats and the need to become independent as much as possible in the area of minerals and strategic resources."
The comment reflects a broader shift in European and global thinking. As geopolitical tensions reshape trade routes and supply chains, countries are looking for partners that can offer both resource security and reliable manufacturing capacity. India, with its large market and growing industrial base, and Poland, with its technical expertise and position inside the European Union, appear to see a natural fit.
Modi also proposed an India-Poland start-up bridge and technology hackathons, aimed at connecting young entrepreneurs and engineers in both countries. The proposal fits a pattern in India's recent diplomacy of building people-to-people and innovation links alongside government-to-government agreements.
The talks carry a weight that goes well beyond the immediate announcements. Relations between India and Poland have gathered unusual momentum over the past two years. Modi's visit to Warsaw in August 2024 was the first by an Indian prime minister in 45 years, and it formally elevated the relationship to a strategic partnership. Tusk's current visit is the reciprocal gesture — and his first bilateral trip to India as Poland's prime minister.
That history matters because it marks a departure from decades of relatively modest engagement. Poland is one of Central Europe's largest economies and a significant military power within NATO. In recent years it has embarked on one of Europe's most ambitious military modernisation programmes, committing spending on defence at levels close to five per cent of GDP — among the highest in NATO.
The scale of that modernisation has made Poland an attractive partner for countries, including India, looking at European defence-industrial cooperation.
The Ukraine war has been the backdrop to much of this. Poland, which shares a border with Ukraine and has been one of Kyiv's strongest supporters in Europe, has had a front-row view of the conflict since 2022. India, meanwhile, has maintained a neutral position, calling for dialogue and diplomacy while keeping its ties with both Russia and Ukraine intact.
Modi used the joint appearance to restate India's position. He said India would continue supporting every meaningful effort for peace in Ukraine and West Asia, and the Polish side appreciated India's recent proposal for a Russia-Ukraine ceasefire. The exchange suggests Warsaw values New Delhi's potential role in any eventual settlement, even as the two countries' positions on the war have not always aligned.
Tusk, for his part, struck a warm personal note, calling Modi a "beacon of hope". He also made an apparent reference to Polish-made drones being used by the Indian military during Operation Sindoor, saying, "Our drones were very useful." The remark points to defence cooperation that has already been tested in real operations — a detail that gives the new Defence Industry Dialogue a practical foundation rather than a purely aspirational one.
The two leaders also welcomed the conclusion of the India-EU Free Trade Agreement negotiations and called for its early signing and ratification. For Poland, as an EU member state, the agreement's progress is directly relevant: a completed FTA would lower barriers for Polish companies entering the Indian market and for Indian exporters reaching Europe through Poland.
The trade-doubling target announced on Thursday — from about $6 billion today to about $12 billion by 2030 — will depend heavily on whether the FTA is ratified and implemented in time to matter.
What does the trade target actually mean in practice? At around $6 billion currently, India-Poland trade is modest compared with India's trade with larger EU economies. Doubling it within four years would require sustained annual growth well above historical rates.
The planned Defence Industry Dialogue, the counter-terrorism dialogue, and the cooperation tracks in semiconductors, cybersecurity and AI are the instruments meant to make that happen — creating regular government-level engagement that can push deals forward.
The presence of some 100 business leaders on Tusk's delegation is itself part of the strategy. Trade targets set by governments only become real when companies invest, and both sides appear to be betting that the political signal from the top will unlock commercial activity beneath it.
Polish firms in sectors such as mining technology, defence equipment and clean coal technology have particular reasons to look at India — a market where demand for exactly those capabilities is growing.
The talks also touched on cooperation in semiconductors and cybersecurity — areas where both countries are trying to build domestic capacity and reduce dependence on a handful of global suppliers. India's push to develop a semiconductor ecosystem and Poland's growing technology sector could find common ground in joint research, investment and talent exchange.
Looking ahead, the relationship will be tested on delivery. The strategic partnership declared in Warsaw in 2024, the Defence Industry Dialogue announced now, the start-up bridge and the hackathons, and the $12 billion trade target all create expectations that will need follow-through.
The next milestones to watch include the ratification of the India-EU FTA, the first round of the Defence Industry Dialogue, and whether the business delegations on both sides convert the summit's momentum into signed agreements.
For now, the New Delhi talks have given India-Poland relations their most substantive upgrade in years. A relationship that once received little attention in either capital is being deliberately rebuilt around trade, defence-industrial cooperation and shared concerns about supply-chain security. Whether the ambition survives contact with reality will depend on what happens after the handshakes — but the handshakes themselves were unusually purposeful.
(Reporting based on Hindustan Times and The Tribune.)