The German army is setting up in Rostock both a Nato headquarters (photo), tasked with coordinating a potential naval war against Russia and the joint headquarters of the German and Polish fleets.

Poland, which has a coast on the Baltic Sea, has entrusted the management of its navy to Germany.

The German firm, Thyssen Krupp Marine Systems, should sell three new submarines to Poland for about 2.4 billion euros. However, the European rules on tender offers force Poland to take into consideration the French proposals (Naval Group, ex-DCNS) and the Swedish proposals (Kockums, a subsidiary of Saab).

In January 2002, thanks to advice from Christine Lagarde, who was then a lawyer with the law firm Baker & McKenzie, Poland had withdrawn from negotiations with Airbus and Dassault, preferring to negotiate instead with the US firms, Boeing and Lockheed-Martin. The result? The European funds which had been granted to increase Polish agriculture to the European Union level ended up being used to purchase US aircrafts and to pay for the Polish contingent of the US operation against Iraq.

At the end of 2016, the Polish army suddenly broke off negotiations with Airbus Helicopters on the deal to buy 50 Caracal helicopters, preferring instead to deal with Boeing, the US manufacturer. As Airbus considered the tender offer to be rigged, it brought the matter before the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce’s Institute of Arbitration, claiming that there had been a breach of due process.