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The President of Poland has called on the United States to transfer nuclear weapons to Polish territory as a deterrent against the future Russian aggression, a demand that is likely to be perceived as very provocative in Moscow.
Andrzej Duda said it was “obvious” that President Donald Trump could redeploy the US nuclear warheads stored in Western Europe or the United States in Poland, a proposal that the Polish chief said he recently discussed with Keith Kellogg, Special American Envoy for Ukraine.
“NATO borders moved to the East in 1999, so 26 years later, there should also be a change in NATO infrastructure in the East. For me, it’s obvious, “said Duda in an interview with the Financial Times. “I think it’s not only that the time has come, but that it would be safer that these weapons are already there.”
Duda hopes to rekindle a nuclear sharing project which he presented without success to the administration of former president Joe Biden in 2022.
Duda said it was up to Trump to decide where to deploy American nuclear weapons, but recalled the announcement of President Vladimir Putin in 2023 that Russia would move tactical nuclear weapons to the Belarus, the ally of Moscow in his invasion of Ukraine.
“Russia has not even hesitated to move their nuclear weapons in the Belarus,” said Duda. “They didn’t ask anyone for permission.”
The call of Duda to welcome nuclear weapons highlights an increasing anxiety in Poland – shared with other countries in its region – about Russia emerging from the peace negotiations with Ukraine negotiated by Trump.
Duda, who is also a supreme commander of the Armed Forces of Poland, echoed Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk saying that the country could alternately protection against President Emmanuel Macron to extend the “nuclear umbrella” of France to cover European allies.
But Duda poured cold water on Tusk’s suggestion last week that Poland could develop its own nuclear arsenal. “To have our own nuclear capacity, I think it would take decades,” said the president.
Duda also said that he could not consider turning around the commitment he gave at their meeting last month on the maintenance of American troops in Poland.
“The concerns concerning the United States incorporating their military presence from Poland are not justified. We are a credible ally for the United States and they also have their own strategic interests here, “he said.
The Polish president also said that he had not considered Trump as carrying out Pro-Moscow negotiations to force kyiv to stop fighting.
“It is not a delicate diplomacy, it is a difficult game, but in my opinion, it is not that President Trump is only kind and sweet with Russia,” said Duda. “I think he applies instruments against Russia, even if it is perhaps not as strong and visible as those he uses against Ukraine.”
“No one has managed to arrest this war so far, so let’s give Trump’s president a chance.”
Last weekend, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski sirdelled with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump’s Elon Musk ally on social networks on Ukraine’s access to the Musk Starlink Satellite Satellite system, with Musk rejecting Sikorski as a “little man”. Tusk intervened to call on the Allies of Poland to show respect for weaker partners rather than arrogance.
Duda rather criticized Sikorski for a “completely useless” intervention on Starlink. “You are not talking to the American administration on Twitter, you do it through diplomatic channels,” he said.
DUDA, a candidate for the Opposition Law and Justice Party (PIS), was in journalization with the Tusk coalition since they won parliamentary elections in 2023. He repeatedly opposed the Tusk reform program with the help of joint judges of the PIS which bring together the Constitutional Court.
When asked if Trump’s administration could influence the Polish presidential election in May, Duda said he was “convinced that the posts will make their own decisions”. But he expressed his concern concerning a disputed electoral result, such as that in Romania, since the judges will also have to validate the Polish results.
“There is no doubt that we are currently dealing with a very serious constitutional crisis in Poland,” said Duda. “What happened in Romania is very worrying and it does not meet European democratic standards.”
The Constitutional Court of Romania prohibited the far -right candidate Călin Georgescu after canceling his victory in the first round following allegations according to which he benefited from an illegal campaign orchestrated by Moscow.
The Polish President accused the European Commission of looking at the institutional conflict of Poland after having pretended to take “many actions” to give the defense to power in 2023.
“The European Commission is now pretending not to see this,” said Duda. “And do you know why?” It is because Prime Minister Tusk is a member of the same European party that most members of the European Commission, as well as its president [Ursula von der Leyen]. “”
