Polish president to press for stronger NATO: official

The gathering in the Belgian capital on Wednesday and Thursday is expected to discuss security challenges facing allies, boosting transatlantic ties, NATO reform, cyber security and combating hybrid threats.

Polish President Andrzej Duda is expected to underline the importance of ties between the United States and Europe, according to Poland’s PAP news agency.

Tensions

Paweł Soloch, the head of the National Security Bureau in Warsaw, told PAP: "It is known that we are in a period of certain turbulence in relations between Europe and the United States. This appeared at the G7 summit in particular.

“It is worth knowing that in the context of these tensions, Poland understands America’s determination in terms of increasing defence spending to the recommended level," Soloch added.

Soloch last week told public broadcaster Polish Radio that Poland was urging other European countries to increase their military spending.

Poland and the US are among a handful of NATO countries that meet the military alliance’s target of allies earmarking at least 2 percent of their GDP for defence, according to officials in Warsaw.

Amid fears of Russian aggression following Moscow's annexation of the Crimea region of Ukraine in 2014, NATO decided at a Warsaw summit in July 2016 to deploy four rotating multinational battalions to Poland and the Baltic states.

(pk/gs)

Source: PAP