Chief of the IDF's General Staff, LTG Aviv Kochavi, on Tuesday held professional meetings with the Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces, General ( * * * * ) Rajmund Andrzejczak and additional senior officers in the Polish Armed Forces.
Kochavi was welcomed with a ceremonial honor guard at the Ministry of National Defense of the Republic of Poland. Following the honor guard, a meeting was held on the strategic relationship and operational and intelligence cooperation between the two militaries and the plans for their expansion. The Chief of the General Staff also presented the challenges and security threats facing the IDF as well as its strategic perception.
Afterwards, a joint wreath-laying ceremony was held at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw, which commemorates the unnamed soldiers who perished during the battles for the independence of the Republic of Poland. Kochavi also visited the Warsaw Jewish Cemetery, in which approximately 200,000 Jews are buried, including many of Warsaw’s Jewish leaders and intellectuals.
On Tuesday morning, the Chief of the General Staff took part in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Memorial to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising alongside a delegation of IDF battalion and unit commanders and the State of Israel’s Ambassador to the Republic of Poland, Mr. Yacov Livne. After the ceremony, the Chief of the General Staff visited the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. The Museum was built on the land on which the Warsaw Ghetto previously stood, and commemorates the Jewish community that lived in the Republic of Poland throughout hundreds of years, making up the world’s largest Jewish community.
On Tuesday evening, Kochavi will leave for a two-day official visit to the French Republic, at the end of which he will return to the State of Israel.
“The existing reality requires and enables the ever-increasing cooperation between our militaries and our strengthening ties,” Kochavi said. “The tragic past will forever be remembered and is another reason for mutual cooperation, given the present and future regional challenges.”
