Poland seeks NATO members to allocate three percent of GDP for defense

(Patria) - Polish President Andrzej Duda announced that during today's meeting with US President Joe Biden, he will seek a commitment from NATO members that the minimum they must allocate for defense will be three percent of GDP, instead of the currently voluntarily assumed obligation of two percent.

- I want to propose during our visit to the White House, and I will discuss it with our allies and the NATO Secretary General, that members jointly decide that NATO will require three percent of GDP from them, not two.

So that the modernization of the army and the creation of military reserves become a reality - Duda said yesterday at the beginning of the National Security Council session in Warsaw.

He emphasized that this three percent of GDP allocated for defense in each member state should be the lowest limit, even though some Western military allies still do not allocate the recommended two percent.

- No one will dare to attack a strong NATO, strong countries. Countries that know how to defend themselves effectively, are prepared, and will stand in defense of their borders from the first moment. Poland is becoming such a country today - he said, adding that "Russia's imperial ambitions exist and will continue to exist".

Yesterday, the Polish President convened a session attended by the presidents of both houses of parliament, the prime minister, some ministers, and the heads of all parliamentary clubs, to show, ahead of today's meeting with the US President on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Poland's accession to NATO, which he is attending with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, that security issues in Warsaw are above political divisions.

Duda, from the now opposition party "Law and Justice", which ruled Poland for eight years until October, despite recent statements by former US President Donald Trump, which question the right to collective defense in NATO, still insists on relying on the US as the main ally.

Pro-European Prime Minister Donald Tusk and his government believe, on the contrary, that European defense should be strengthened, "so as not to have to fear the whims" of a future US president who might, as Trump does, question Article 5 of the NATO treaty and collective defense.

In the latest poll for the news portal Virtualna Polska, 60 percent of Poles supported Prime Minister Tusk's proposal that Europe should create joint forces capable of responding in the event of a Russian attack.

President Duda, who is against this idea, was supported by 32 percent of respondents.