President Duda: I will issue a proposal for the allies to spend 3% of GDP on defence

President Duda and Prime Minister Tusk are headed to Washington, flying two separate aircraft. On Tuesday they are going to meet POTUS Joe Biden - the date is significant since it is the anniversary of NATO being expanded with members coming from the former Eastern Bloc.

„We are meeting to symbolically talk about the strategic challenges that the Polish security faces today, considering the aspect of our North-Atlantic Alliance presence”, Duda said, opening the meeting of the National Security Council. The President said that it is a „grand and significant gesture, with two representatives of Poland being invited on the 25th anniversary of NATO accession to that meeting”.

„I think that we should make a statement - and I want to propose this during our visit at the White House, and I will be talking about this with all of our allies, and also the NATO Secretary General - asking all NATO nations to decide that spending 3% instead of 2% of GDP on defence would be required”, he said. As Duda said, this would serve as a stimulus for further modernization, and also „establishment of military resources needed in Europe”, to prevent problems like the ones associated with gathering munitions for Ukraine.

He recalled that 4% is the current share of defence spending in the Polish GDP. „If we are stating that no one would be brave enough to attack NATO, it needs to be added that no one will be brave enough to attack strong NATO. A clear and brave response to the Russian aggression is needed. And boost of the NATO military potential is the answer we need”, he said.

He also announced that work is underway on the new national security strategy, which will need to take into account the lessons drawn from the Russian invasion of Ukraine. „I want to thank the Minister of Defence, Deputy PM, for the consent expressed, approving the effort aimed at drafting a new national security strategy. I begin work on the guidelines within that scope. We already have the previous strategy in place, dating back to 2020. We have seen a huge change here, in 2022, and we draw a conclusion from that change, ever since the Russian aggression against Ukraine began”, he assured.

„I am happy that we will be implementing this together, I hope that this document is created soon and I hope that maybe, before the 3rd anniversary of the Russian aggression against Ukraine, we will have that document ready, approved, and adopted”, Duda said.

Referring to the anniversary of Poland’s NATO accession he stressed that representatives of different political groups were asking for that to happen. He thanked all persons who were proponents of the Polish NATO membership, starting from the „cursed soldiers”, the Solidarity movement activists, and those „from all sides of our political scene who were making efforts aimed at making us a part of this great alliance”, along with the Polish diasporas abroad. „This was a show of absolute unity of political scene, and thus I am also happy today that we are here, symbolically, together, the whole Polish political scene”, he said.

He was stressing the relevance of the US-Polish relations that he referred to as the foundation of European security. „We had, and still have three goals: reinforcing our NATO presence, becoming a part of the EU, and reinforcing the conventional alliance with the United States”, he said. Duda recalled that reinforcement of the transatlantic bond, also economically, is one of the priorities for the Polish EU presidency in early 2025.

He also expressed his satisfaction with the fact that Sweden is now a part of NATO, stating that „Finland and Sweden are strong, they are both strong armies and strong nations.”

Before departing President said that the security matters, along with the necessary Ukrainian victory that would stop Russian imperialism from threatening the whole of Europe would become a topic of conversation with the Republicans and Democrats, in both chambers of Congress, the House of Representatives, and the Senate. Duda is expected to visit a nuclear power plant in Georgia, making use of Westinghouse technologies - also expected to be used in Poland. The schedule also includes meeting with the US Soldier, and demonstration of the latest M1 Abrams main battle tank, and the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter.

On 12th March 1999, in Independence, Missouri, the US Secretary of State formally received the NATO ratification document approved by Poland. This marked the first post-Cold War NATO expansion. When Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary joined NATO, the member count was as high as 16. Currently, there are 32 NATO member states.