(Warsaw) Poland’s president on Monday called on other members of the NATO alliance to increase their defense spending to 3% of their gross domestic product as Russia puts its economy on a war footing and continues its invasion of Ukraine.
President Andrzej Duda made the call in remarks addressed at home and abroad. His call comes on the eve of a visit to the White House, where US President Joe Biden will receive Mr Duda and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Tuesday.
“In the face of the war in Ukraine and Russia’s growing imperial aspirations, NATO member countries must act boldly and without compromise,” Mr. Duda said Monday evening in a speech to his nation.
This intervention comes as Poland celebrates the 25the anniversary of its accession to NATO, alongside the Czech Republic and Hungary, March 12, 1999.
“Poland is proud to have been part of it for 25 years,” he said. There has not been and is no better guarantor of security than NATO. »
“The war in Ukraine has clearly shown that the United States is and must remain the security leader in Europe and the world,” Duda said in his speech to his country.
“However, other NATO countries must also take greater responsibility for the security of the entire alliance and intensively modernize and strengthen their troops. »
Duda’s remarks come on the same day the Swedish flag was raised at NATO headquarters in Brussels to cement its place as 32e member of the transatlantic alliance. Finland joined NATO last year.
“Today, NATO is sending a clear and strong signal by welcoming Finland and Sweden into its ranks,” he acknowledged. It is a historic event. Countries that have so far maintained a neutral status for years are joining the alliance. NATO is therefore considerably strengthened. However, other bold decisions are needed. »
Increased expenses
NATO members agreed in 2014 to increase defense spending to 2% of GDP following Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in 2014, but most members, including Germany, still fail to achieve this goal.
However, Poland now spends 4% of its GDP on defense, making it the country that spends the most percentage-wise to modernize its military, while the United States is well over 3%.
“Russia’s imperialist ambitions and aggressive revisionism are pushing Moscow toward direct confrontation with NATO, with the West and, ultimately, with the entire free world,” Mr. Duda said in an article opinion published in the Washington Post.
Mr. Duda said this places the United States and Poland in a position to “set an example and serve as an inspiration to others.”
“The Russian Federation has put its economy into war mode. The country devotes nearly 30% of its annual budget to armaments, Mr. Duda argued in the newspaper’s editorial. This figure and other data from Russia are alarming. Vladimir Putin’s regime poses the greatest threat to world peace since the end of the Cold War. »
The Biden administration has suggested that Mr. Duda’s call to raise NATO countries’ defense spending target may be, at least for now, too ambitious.
“I think the first step is to get every country to the 2% threshold, and we’ve seen improvement there,” said US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller. But I think this is the first step before we start talking about an additional proposal. »
Mr Duda will travel to Brussels for a meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg after his visit to the United States.
With Aamer Madhani