“Poland must expand its military and consider acquiring nuclear weapons“. This is how Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced in a speech to parliament the dramatic turning point necessary to guarantee Warsaw’s security. “Profound changes in American geopolitics place the country in an objectively more difficult situation“, the prime minister said, stressing that “we must be aware that Poland must achieve the most modern capabilities also related to nuclear weapons and modern unconventional weapons… This is a race for security, not for war“.
Tusk, after declaring that Poland “is talking seriously” with Paris about the proposal to extend the French nuclear umbrella, cited the example of Ukraine giving up its nuclear arsenal and being attacked by Russia in 2022 to emphasize the importance of not limiting itself to conventional weapons. Even the leader of the former Polish ruling party, Jaroslaw Kaczynsky, said three years ago that “as a citizen” he would like Warsaw to equip itself with nuclear weapons, but “as a responsible politician I consider the idea as unrealistic“.
It must be said that the objective made explicit by the current Polish prime minister would, at the moment, be in contrast with compliance with the constraints provided for by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, also signed by Poland.
The former president of the European Council and prime minister since 2023 also said that he intends to introduce mandatory military training for all adult men in the country to strengthen national defence and increase the number of reservists. Women will also have the opportunity to volunteer, but “war is still, to a greater extent, the domain of men“. Tusk has, however, specified that it is not a return to compulsory conscription, which ended in Poland in 2008.
Poland is already the largest military power among the former members of the Warsaw Pact. Being able to count on about 200 thousand men, the Polish army is the third largest in NATO after the United States and Turkey. The goal expressed is to bring it to 500 thousand units, including reservists. To plead his case, Tusk recalled that Ukraine’s army has 800 thousand soldiers while Russia’s has about 1.3 million soldiers.
Finally, Tusk announced that he wanted to further increase military spending, proposing to allocate 5% of GDP to defense. This year, the government has already allocated 4.7% of GDP, the highest percentage among NATO member countries. Numbers that highlight Poland as one of the “favorite” European countries of US President Donald Trump.