The president of Poland, Andrzej Dudaassured this Monday in a published interview that his country is “willing to accept nuclear weapons” of allied countries in their territory. Already in October 2022, Poland made this request to the US with the aim of defending itself against Russia.
In statements reported by the Polish newspaper Fakt, Duda has pointed out thate “Russia is increasingly militarizing Kaliningrad”, the Russian exclave that shares a border with Poland and Lithuania, and that Moscow also “has been moving nuclear weapons to Belarus.”
Therefore, he said, “if our allies decide to deploy nuclear missiles in our territory (…) we are prepared.”
“We are part of the North Atlantic Alliance and therefore we have obligations in this regard, which means that we simply apply a policy of common interests,” Duda said.
In May 2023, the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenkoannounced that his country had already begun to receive part of the Russian nuclear arsenal on its territory, following the Kremlin's announcement to send tactical nuclear missiles to Belarusian territory.
Already in 2022, Duda pointed out that “Poland's big problem is that it does not have nuclear weapons” and that, since “there is no chance that we will get our hands on them in the near future”, it would be advisable to participate in NATO's Nuclear Sharing program, a formula according to which a NATO member transfers nuclear weapons to another's territory.
The Polish president indicated on that occasion that he had spoken “with American leaders to consider this opportunity” and stressed that “the issue is open.”
For his part, the general Roman Polkofrom his position as acting head of Poland's National Security Cabinet, supported that proposal, adding that such weapons “could be transported by Polish aircraft.”
In June last year, the Polish Army announced plans to train the F-35 fighter-bombers that will soon equip its Armed Forces to use B61 tactical nuclear bombs.
Support for nuclear weapons among the Polish population has increased in the wake of the war in Ukraine, and if polls five years ago showed that only a quarter of the population was in favor of Poland possessing such weapons, a poll from the year last raised that proportion to 55%
