Poland’s Duda: NATO members must increase defence spending to 3%

On a visit to NATO’s headquarters in Brussels, Polish President Andrzej Duda said he hoped an agreement would be reached between the US and Ukraine, while also calling for NATO members to spend at least 3% of their GDP on defence.

“I am still hopeful that an agreement will be reached between the United States and Ukraine,” concurred NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte after meeting Duda, who was visiting Brussels at Rutte’s request as part of consultations before the NATO summit in The Hague.

The invitation was likely not a coincidence, given that Duda is one of few politicians on good terms with both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US President Donald Trump.

“President Duda has worked closely with President Trump, like I did when I was Prime Minister of the Netherlands. I think it’s good that we have experienced leaders in Europe who can liaise easily with our colleagues on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, in this case, with President Trump, while President Duda also visited Washington recently,” said Rutte.

“I was on the phone myself with President Trump last week,” he continued. “We also hope to visit the US soon, from NATO. So we take this step by step, but it is important that we maintain dialogue, that we have these intense consultations between friends within the NATO alliance,” said Rutte.

For his part, Duda also said he believes that dialogue between the US and Ukraine is still possible. Responding to a question by Euronews on sending peacekeeping troops to Ukraine, he did not take a clear position on whether he’d be in favour of sending Polish soldiers.

Instead, he spoke of the possibility that any peacekeeping force would comprise of a mixture of different countries’ personnel.

“I would not rule out that there would be agreement from both sides on a UN force. Let us not forget that this is also something I believe Russia should agree to. And this is where various countries can direct their contingents to this force,” said Duda.

During his visit, Duda also submitted a written proposal for NATO members to increase defence spending from 2% to 3%, a matter which will be discussed at the next NATO summit in The Hague. Poland has increased its defence and security spending to almost 5% in the last few years.