Andrzej Duda was hosted by Jens Stoltenberg at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on Wednesday, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
'Poland expects new security plans for the eastern flank of NATO'
At a joint news conference with the NATO chief afterwards, the Polish president said: “Poland expects new security plans for the eastern flank of NATO. We would like NATO to be able to respond faster to a potential attack.”
Duda added that Poland hoped NATO would commit more soldiers to its high readiness force and bolster infrastructure “so that NATO forces have as many weapons-storage sites as possible at their disposal on the eastern flank in the event of an attack.”
“For Poland and its security, this is the most important thing,” Duda stressed.
He added that Poland "is very serious about its allied commitments” and would spend “more than 4 percent of its GDP on defence this year.”
He also said: “For a long time now, we have been modernising our armed forces and buying modern weapons in the face of the obvious threat of Russian imperialism and a potential Russian attack on NATO countries.”
NATO will defend 'every inch of Polish territory’: Stoltenberg
Meanwhile, Stoltenberg vowed that NATO would defend “every inch of Polish territory and that of the whole NATO alliance.”
The Polish president and the NATO chief said they had also discussed further support of war-torn Ukraine.
Duda said he was grateful to the countries that had so far donated modern battle tanks to Ukraine.
He added: “We would like to assemble at least a brigade of tanks for Ukraine, maybe we can form several brigades.”
The Polish president noted that Ukrainian soldiers were already being trained on German-made Leopard 2 tanks in southwestern Poland, where he visited them earlier this week.
Diplomatic drive
Wednesday’s meeting with Stoltenberg marked the beginning of Duda’s diplomatic offensive ahead of US President Joe Biden’s visit to Poland later this month.
A summit of the Bucharest Nine (B9) group of eastern-flank NATO allies will be held in Poland during Biden's visit, and a NATO summit is due to take place in Vilnius, Lithuania, in the summer, officials have said.
Later on Wednesday, the Polish president held a video call with the Slovak head of state, Zuzana Čaputová, and Lithuania’s Gitanas Nausėda, reporters were told.
Duda now heads to London for talks with UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, and he will later visit Germany to attend the annual Munich Security Conference and meet with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron, the PAP news agency reported.
Wednesday is day 357 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, prezydent.pl
Click on the audio player above for a report by Radio Poland’s Michał Owczarek.