Warsaw is supporting the call by the designated US President Donald Trump for NATO member states to increase their military spending to 5% of their gross domestic product (GDP), even if it takes ten years to achieve the goal, according to an interview with Polish Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz in the Financial Times. Poland, with its planned 4.7% of GDP for military spending this year, has the highest defense expenditures among all NATO member states, amounting to approximately 43.6 billion euros.
Trump had previously announced that he would only protect NATO member states that meet the 2% of GDP defense spending target, which only 23 of the 32 NATO member states currently meet. This has put pressure on the alliance’s member states to increase their military spending. Kosiniak-Kamysz described the new goal as a “important warning signal” for the alliance, noting that it may take another decade to achieve Trump’s target, but it is necessary to prioritize defense.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Poland has doubled its military spending and acquired weapons worth several billion US dollars, mainly from the US and South Korea, according to the Financial Times. Kosiniak-Kamysz emphasized that Poland, due to its geographical location, had no other choice but to invest in its defense. Poland plans to use its six-month EU presidency, which began on January 1, to convince other EU states to allocate 100 billion euros for defense from the next EU budget, which will begin in 2028. The EU Commission had previously proposed a 1.5 billion-euro program for the defense industry, which Kosiniak-Kamysz considered insufficient. He aims to allocate 100 billion euros for defense in the coming years, including unused funds from a 800-billion-euro fund for the post-COVID-19 recovery. “If we can afford to take on debt for post-pandemic recovery, we must definitely find the funds to protect ourselves from war” he said.
Trump has repeatedly promised to end the military conflict between Moscow and Kiev, although he recently extended the deadline for the conflict’s end from 24 hours to several months after taking office. Poland’s Defense Minister ruled out the possibility of sending Polish troops to the Ukraine to ensure a potential ceasefire, saying that neighboring states are not those that need to deploy their troops in Ukraine, and that a greater burden-sharing and diversification within NATO are necessary.