WASHINGTON – US President Joe Biden said there was no need for additional American troops to bolster Poland’s border, ahead of a request from that country’s head of state for more personnel and military equipment to ease worries over Russian aggression on Nato’s eastern flank.
“There’s no need for more troops at the Polish border, but I’m meeting with the prime minister tomorrow,” Mr Biden told reporters on March 12.
Polish President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Donald Tusk will meet Mr Biden at the White House on March 13, at a time when Russia appears to be gaining the upper hand in its war in Ukraine, Poland’s eastern neighbour.
Since the Russian invasion two years ago, Poland has become the gateway for around 80 per cent of Western humanitarian and military aid to Kyiv, and has seen an increase in the alliance’s presence on its territory. The United States in 2023 set up a garrison in the western Polish city of Poznan and has 10,000 troops stationed in the country.
The meeting with Mr Biden coincides with the 25th anniversary of Poland’s membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.
Mr Duda, who is also the head of the country’s armed forces, will combine his appeal for more troops with a request for the US to speed up deliveries of military equipment and sell more advanced arms to Poland, according to a person familiar with his thinking, who declined to be named because the talks are private.
The visit takes place at a pivotal moment in Polish politics, in which Mr Duda and Mr Tusk are adversaries. Since coming to power in December 2023, Mr Tusk’s government has sought to pry former ruling nationalists, who backed Mr Duda in his two terms as president, away from state institutions including the public broadcaster and judiciary.
Still, Mr Tusk suggested on March 12 that, when it comes to defence, the two are aligned.
“I differ politically with President Andrzej Duda in almost everything, but when it comes to the security of our homeland, we must and will act together,” he said in a post on social media platform X. “Not only during a visit to the US.”
The push comes as Poland is gearing up to spend around 4 per cent of its economic output on defence in 2024, part of an effort to deter Russian aggression and replace gear donated to Ukraine. A significant share of the orders is going to US industry.
In 2023 alone, Washington approved a planned sale to Poland of Apache helicopters and related equipment worth an estimated US$12 billion (S$16 billion), as well as about US$10 billion in weapons including 18 precision Himars rocket launchers. That is on top of additional purchases, including Abrams tanks and Patriot missiles.
Mr Duda pre-empted the visit, telling a meeting with Mr Tusk’s government and party leaders on March 11 that he will propose that Nato member states raise the minimum level of defence spending to 3 per cent of output in his talks with Mr Biden and with alliance chief Jens Stoltenberg on March 15.
The proposal follows comments by former president Donald Trump, who is making another White House bid, that he told a Nato ally during his presidency that he would encourage Russia “to do whatever the hell they want” to countries that did not meet the alliance’s defence spending obligations.
Mr Duda famously asked the then President during a White House visit in 2018 to set up a permanent US military base, offering to call it “Fort Trump”. Both men are still in touch. BLOOMBERG
