Polish President Andrzej Duda said Poland is “ready” to host nuclear weapons on its territory if NATO decides to reinforce its eastern flank.
“Russia is increasingly militarizing the Königsberg oblast (Kaliningrad). Recently, it has been relocating its nuclear weapons to Belarus,” Duda said in an interview published Monday by Polish outlet Fakt.
“If our allies decide to deploy nuclear weapons as part of nuclear sharing on our territory as well, in order to strengthen the security of NATO's eastern flank, we are ready for it,” he added.
Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, President Vladimir Putin has made veiled nuclear threats toward the West, even stashing atomic weapons in Belarus, which borders NATO members Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.
Duda said nuclear sharing has been the subject of talks between Poland and the U.S. "for some time."
"I've already talked about it several times. I must admit that when asked about it, I declared our readiness," he said.
Duda, who recently traveled to New York and met Republican 2024 candidate Donald Trump, spoke fondly of the former president, saying that the two have “a lot of common topics."
“He is a politician with whom I directly cooperated with the United States for four years when he was the president of the United States,” Duda said. “I want to emphasize very strongly that we have been friends since then. I really like talking to him, because he is an extremely interesting personality and has a lot of experience, both political and business.”
Politico
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