Poland’s president on Monday called on other members of the NATO alliance to raise their spending on defense to 3 per cent of their gross domestic product as Russia puts its economy on a war footing and pushes forward with its invasion of Ukraine.
President Andrzej Duda made his call in remarks directed at home and abroad. His appeal came on the eve of a visit to the White House, where U.S. President Joe Biden will receive both Duda and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Tuesday.
“In the face of the war in Ukraine and Russia’s growing imperial aspirations, the countries making up NATO must act boldly and uncompromisingly,” Duda said in a Monday evening address to his nation.
His appeal comes as Poland marks the 25th anniversary of its accession to NATO, along with the Czech Republic and Hungary, on March 12, 1999. And Duda’s remarks came on the same day that Sweden’s flag was raised at NATO headquarters in Brussels to cement its place as the 32nd member of the alliance.
“Poland is proud to have been a part of it for 25 years,” he said. “There has been and there is no better guarantor of security than the North Atlantic Alliance.”
“The war in Ukraine has clearly shown that the United States is and should remain the leader in security issues in Europe and the world,” Duda said in his speech to his nation. “However, other NATO countries must also take greater responsibility for the security of the entire alliance and intensively modernize and strengthen their troops.”
NATO members agreed in 2014 to boost their defense spending to 2% of GDP after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014, but most members, including Germany, still fall short of that benchmark.
Poland, however, now spends 4% of its GDP on defense, making it the member to spend the most in percentage terms as it modernizes its military, while the U.S. is well above 3 per cent. “Russia’s imperialistic ambitions and aggressive revisionism are pushing Moscow toward a direct confrontation with NATO, with the West and, ultimately, with the whole free world,” Duda said in an op-ed published in The Washington Post.
