Backs del presidente polacco spinge per l’accesso allo scudo nucleare francese

By Natalia Ojewska and Piotr Skolimowski

Poland’s President Andrzej Duda said his country should seek the protection of France’s nuclear deterrent against a potential Russian threat as he continued to call for access to US atomic weapons.
“I believe we can accept both solutions,” the president told Bloomberg News in an interview in Warsaw. “These two ideas are neither contradictory nor mutually exclusive.”

Prime Minister Donald Tusk told parliament in March that Poland may seek access to nuclear weapons and said he was in “serious talks” over French President Emmanuel Macron’s proposal to use Paris’s nuclear capabilities to defend European allies.

The nuclear push adds to Warsaw’s already ambitious rearmament program spurred by Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor Ukraine more than three years ago. At 4.7% of economic output, Poland is NATO’s top defense spender. Warsaw has also enlisted financial support from the European Union to fortify its border with Russian ally Belarus and Russia’s exclave of Kaliningrad.

But Duda’s attempts to lobby the previous US administration to get Warsaw involved in its nuclear sharing program yielded no results. Nuclear sharing can take the form of an ally hosting US atomic weapons on its soil, as several NATO members in Europe are believed to do, or offering escort or reconnaissance jets for a nuclear mission.

Speaking less than four months before leaving office, Duda defended his continued efforts, saying it was NATO’s role to stand up to “aggressive behavior from Russia.” In 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow had deployed some of its tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus, rattling members of the alliance’s eastern flank.

“How is NATO going to respond to that? My answer is very simple,” Duda said. “We invite you to extend nuclear sharing also to our territory.”

Meanwhile, Poland’s embrace of Macron’s proposal could face a number of obstacles, as France’s nuclear shield is independent of the NATO security guarantees which extend to Poland. Warsaw is also committed not to acquire atomic weapons itself as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Paris and Warsaw are currently finalizing a bilateral treaty that will cover defense, nuclear energy and scientific cooperation, among other issues, according to a post by the French president on X last week after a phone call with Tusk.
Troop Surge

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has led to an increased deployment of US troops to the Polish territory as the airport of Rzeszow-Jasionka in the east of the country became the hub for 90% of western military aid to Kyiv.

Troop Surge

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has led to an increased deployment of US troops to the Polish territory as the airport of Rzeszow-Jasionka in the east of the country became the hub for 90% of western military aid to Kyiv.

A recent US decision to relocate the troops from Jasionka has sparked concern that President Donald Trump may be planning a broader pullback from NATO’s eastern flank as he seeks to negotiate a truce in Ukraine.

Read More: Europe’s Defenses Risk Faltering Within Weeks Without US Support

Duda, who has cultivated close ties with Trump and briefly met him in Washington in February after a long waiting time, said there were “absolutely no grounds to claim that the size of the American army will be reduced in Poland.”

“Quite the opposite,” he said. Duda said that his perception from the meetings with Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is that the US military presence “in Poland, primarily in Poland, on the eastern flank, will rather be strengthened.”

Warsaw has sought to increase its geopolitical clout in recent years. Duda has been a strong proponent of the so-called Three Seas Initiative, established a decade ago to forge cooperation between central and eastern European nations, build infrastructure and bring their economies closer together.

The forum, which spans 13 countries located between the Baltic, Black and Adriatic seas, could play an important role in supporting Ukraine, the president said. He will host leaders for the summit in Warsaw on April 28-29, which will be attended by US Energy Secretary Chris Wright.

Smart

France only has enough nuclear warheads to defend itself so is Poland willing to pay for the production and maintenance of additional nukes which is still controlled by the French president?