Morawiecki made the statement at the inauguration of a special military training event for civilians dubbed “Train with NATO”, which marked Poland’s 24th anniversary of accession to the alliance and which took place at the army base in Warsaw’s Wesoła district.
“Poland is part of NATO, the strongest military alliance in history. That is why we are safe”, Morawiecki said.
He added that the exercises under the event are held by military missions veterans. “And it is on these military missions that not only soldiers get to know each other, gain experience and work on interoperability of equipment, but also various concepts, strategies for defense for the future are born there”, Morawiecki noted.
“Building a strong army begins with strong public finances. It is from the Polish budget that we finance the Polish army today, purchases abroad, and a recapitalization of our Polish armaments plants”, he added.
Early this year, Morawiecki announced that Warsaw aimed to earmark 4% of the country’s GDP on defense this year, the highest number among all NATO countries when compared to 2022 levels.
In 2022, the military alliance spent 2.57% of its combined GDP on defense. The biggest relative spenders were Greece (3.76%) United States (3.47%), and Poland (2.42%).
In 2006, NATO defense ministers agreed to commit a minimum of 2% of their GDPs, a guideline number which 20 out of 28 member states failed to reach in 2022.
(jh)
Source: PAP