Poland is expanding its defensive capabilities; in 2023 we will spend more than 4% of GDP on defense GDP is twice as high as expected from NATO allies. We are building common security – one for all, all for one – said President Andrzej Duda in an interview for “Le Figaro”.
“Today we are building common security”
The content of the conversation was published Saturday evening on the website of the presidential office. Andrzej Duda was asked, among other things, in an interview about Poland’s strategic relationship with the United States. When asked if this is a security guarantee for him, the president noted that “we have done everything we can to join NATO precisely to get a guarantee from Article 5 of the Treaty”.
It’s not just about words. Today, with NATO’s reinforced presence on the eastern flank, nearly 10,000 US troops are present on our territory. Poland is expanding its defensive capabilities. We buy guns. In 2023 we will spend more than 4% of GDP on defence. This is twice as much as is expected from NATO allies. Today we are building common security, one for all, all for one
emphasized the president.
When asked if he envisioned a possible Russian attack on Poland, he replied that “Russia’s attack on Poland would be Russia’s attack on NATO.”
When the United States was attacked in 2001, all allies sided with the Americans and fought against the terrorists. We believe that if there was an attack on any NATO country, whatever it might be, the response would be the same: swift and decisive.
emphasized the president.
“Putin can win
Andrzej Duda also stressed during the conversation that Ukraine urgently needs help. When asked if the Russians can still win the war in Ukraine, the president replied:
Yes, you can, if Ukraine does not receive urgent aid. They don’t have modern military infrastructure, but they do have people.
If we do not send military equipment to Ukraine in the coming weeks, Putin can win. He can win, and we don’t know where he will stop
emphasized the president.
During the conversation, he also said that he is very proud of the Poles, of the help they provided to Ukrainian refugees who escaped the bombs. As he noted: “The Poles have not forgotten what the Russian occupation is, what the Russian invasion is and how the Russian army behaves.”
His coming means death, cruelty, relentless struggle
he noticed.
When asked whether “the assessment of Russian aggression against Ukraine and its excellent relations with the President of Ukraine, with the leaders of the Baltic States and other Eastern European countries help to revive the Three Seas area,” Andrzej Duda replied that “indeed, Central Europe has been warning against Vladimir Putin for years.”
In 2008, when Russia attacked Georgia, Polish President Lech Kaczyński accompanied the leaders of Ukraine and the Baltic states to Tbilisi, where at the decisive moment, before a crowd of Georgians gathered in the city center, President Kaczyński said the memorable words that if Russia didn’t stop is: +Today Georgia, tomorrow maybe the Baltic States, Ukraine, and later maybe my country, Poland+
the president recalled.
The president noted that the countries of Eastern Europe are in solidarity with Moscow.
We are together, but we are also in NATO
he noticed.
What is very important is that our territory is a strategic area that leads to the Baltic States through the Suwałki Corridor. If the Suwałki Corridor, 65 km from the Polish-Lithuanian border between Belarus and Russia’s Kaliningrad Oblast, is not defended, the Baltic states will be cut off from the rest of the NATO countries. We take it very seriously, both we and our Baltic partners
he noticed.
“There is no place that would not suffer.”
The conversation also raised the question of whether it was necessary for Poland to raise the issue of German war reparations after the devastation of World War II.
The truth is that after World War II, the Germans did nothing to pay reparations. All Polish society agrees on reparations. There is not a family in Poland whose member was not killed by the Germans. There is no place that would not suffer
– replied Andrzej Duda.
We rebuilt Poland after the war with our own troops. Other countries, such as Greece, still want reparations. Why should the Polish state, which was the main victim of the war, lose 6 million of its citizens, have a completely destroyed capital, the state with the greatest losses and the greatest destruction receive nothing?
said the chairman.
kk/PAP
Source: wPolityce