Polish President Duda wants access to the French nuclear shield

Polish President Andrzej Duda said his country should seek protection from a potential Russian threat through French nuclear deterrence, while continuing to call for access to US nuclear weapons, Bloomberg reports, UNN writes.

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"I think we can make both decisions," the Polish president told Bloomberg in an interview in Warsaw. "These two ideas are neither contradictory nor mutually exclusive."

Prime Minister Donald Tusk told parliament in March that Poland could seek access to nuclear weapons and said he was in "serious talks" about French President Emmanuel Macron's proposal to use Paris' nuclear potential to defend European allies.

The nuclear ambition, as stated, complements Warsaw's already ambitious rearmament program, triggered by Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago. With 4.7% of economic output, Poland is the NATO leader in defense spending. Warsaw has also secured EU financial support to strengthen its border with Russia's ally Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, the newspaper writes.

But Duda's attempts to lobby the previous US administration to include Warsaw in its nuclear sharing program, as stated, have yielded no results.

Speaking less than four months before leaving office, Duda defended his efforts, saying NATO's role is to counter "Russia's aggressive behavior." In 2023, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin said that Moscow had deployed some of its tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, which frightened members of the alliance's eastern flank.

"How does NATO intend to react to this? My answer is very simple," Duda said. "We propose that you extend nuclear sharing to our territory as well."

Meanwhile, Poland's approval of Macron's proposal may face a number of obstacles, as France's nuclear shield is independent of NATO's security guarantees, which extend to Poland, the newspaper writes. Warsaw has also pledged not to acquire nuclear weapons as a signatory to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

Paris and Warsaw are currently finalizing a bilateral treaty that will cover defense, nuclear energy and scientific cooperation, among other issues, according to a message from the French president on X last week after a phone call with Tusk.

American troops

Duda, who has forged close ties with Trump and had a brief meeting with him in Washington in February, also said that "there is no reason to argue that the size of the American army in Poland will decrease."

"Quite the opposite," he said. Duda said his perception of meetings with Trump and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is that the US military presence "in Poland, primarily in Poland, on the eastern flank, is more likely to be strengthened."

In recent years, Warsaw has sought to increase its geopolitical influence. Duda has been a staunch supporter of the so-called Three Seas Initiative, or simply the Trimorye, created ten years ago to establish cooperation between the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, build infrastructure and bring their economies closer together.

The forum, which covers 13 countries located between the Baltic, Black and Adriatic Seas, can play an important role in supporting Ukraine, the Polish president said. He will host leaders at a summit in Warsaw on April 28-29, which will be attended by US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright.