The Polish president held talks on Thursday with Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at Nato Headquarters in Brussels.
Duda told a press conference in Brussels that
the increased spending would make the common security policy effective.
The president expressed satisfaction that Poland is a NATO member and said the country wanted to be responsible for its own security. That is why, he said, Warsaw is currently spending over 4% of GDP on modernizing the Polish armed forces.
The president’s trip to Brussels comes on the way back from his visit to the United States, where he, together with Prime Minister Donald Tusk, met U.S. President Joe Biden
to mark the 25th anniversary of Poland’s accession to NATO.
While in Washington, President Duda had stated that the current geopolitical situation differs greatly from that of a decade ago when NATO established the 2% target.
Now, given the threat posed by Russia following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, member states should be more accountable for ensuring the alliance’s overall security.
“Russia’s aggression against Ukraine clearly demonstrated that the United States is and should remain the security leader. But other Allies must take more responsibility for the security of the Alliance as a whole,” Duda said during his meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden.
Responding to Duda’s proposal, U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller had said that the first step should be for all countries to meet the
current spending requirement (2%).
Countries such as France, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Italy, and Canada have not yet achieved the 2% target.
At present, Poland allocates the largest percentage of its GDP to defense within NATO, at 4.23%, followed by the United States at around 3.5%.
