Icelandic Coast Guard and police delegation visits Polish Border Guard’s Maritime Division

Guarding Poland's sea border

The visit was hosted by Commander (Border Guard) Grzegorz Glista, Deputy Commandant for Maritime Affairs of the Maritime Division. Chief Inspector Jarosław Neumann, Deputy Commandant of the Gdańsk City Police, also took part. The Icelandic guests were introduced to the structure and operation of the Maritime Division and to the tasks it carries out in protecting Poland's maritime state border, with particular attention paid to surveillance of Polish maritime areas.

That surveillance role is growing as the Polish sector of the Baltic fills with infrastructure that needs constant monitoring, from subsea cables and gas pipelines to offshore wind farms under construction. The hosts also presented plans to set up a Maritime Security Centre within the division's structure. Details of the project have not yet been made public, but it points to more coordinated monitoring of Polish waters based on a shared maritime picture.

A natural partner for Iceland

The exchange is of particular interest to Iceland, whose maritime security model differs markedly from Poland's. A founding member of NATO, the country has no standing armed forces, and many maritime security tasks fall to its coast guard and police. Contact with a service that combines border protection, sea surveillance and cooperation with both the military and civilian agencies gives Icelandic officials a close look at how a Baltic coastal state organises security at sea.