Warsaw wants bigger NATO presence

Prime Minister Donald Tusk requested on Tuesday for a bigger presence of NATO forces in Poland in order to strengthen the alliance’s eastern border amid tensions between the Russian Federation and Ukraine.

 

Poland currently hosts a small detachment of US forces at a military airport in Łask, which hosts training missions of F-16 fighter jets. However, the country's political elite is worried about the Russian-Ukrainian conflict spilling into Poland. “If there is a thing such as a NATO border that needs diligence it would be Poland’s eastern border,” Tusk stated.

 

US Vice President Joe Biden reiterated US safety guarantees for Poland under mutual NATO defense obligations during his visit in Warsaw in March insisting that the deployment of elements of the US missile defense system in Poland by 2018 will go ahead as planned.

 

However, Tusk said he would rather “see Poland defended by soldiers, not treaties,” arguing that security guarantees without military presence are an insufficient deterrent.