Poland ‘ready’ to host nuke weapons – Duda

Poland is ready to host nuclear arms if the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) decides to deploy the weapons in the face of Russia reinforcing its armaments in Belarus and Kaliningrad, President Andrzej Duda said in an interview on Monday.

Poland, a NATO member and a staunch supporter of Ukraine, shares a border with both Russia’s Kaliningrad enclave and with Moscow’s ally Belarus.

“If our allies decide to deploy nuclear arms on our territory as part of nuclear sharing to reinforce NATO’s eastern flank, we are ready to do so,”Duda said in the interview published by the Fakt daily.

He spoke to the Polish media after visiting New York, where he held meetings at the United Nations and discussed the war in Ukraine with former US president Donald Trump. In March, he visited Washington D.C., where he met with US President Joe Biden.

Discussions about nuclear cooperation between Poland and the US have been ongoing “for some time,” Duda said.

“I have already talked about this several times. I must admit that when asked about it, I declared our readiness,” he said.

“Russia is increasingly militarizing Kaliningrad. Recently, it has been relocating its nuclear weapons to Belarus,” the president added.

In June 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed that his country had sent tactical nuclear arms to Belarus, which borders Ukraine and Poland.

During the last NATO summit in Lithuania’s capital Vilnius, the allies pledged to “take all necessary steps to ensure the credibility, effectiveness, safety and security of the nuclear deterrent mission.”