Poland expresses interest to host NATO’s nuclear weapons
Europe, News July 3, 2023 1 Comment on Poland expresses interest to host NATO’s nuclear weaponsPoland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that his country wants to join NATO’s nuclear weapons sharing program. Poland’s bid to host nuclear weapons came after Russia deployed its tactical nuclear weapons in neighboring Belarus.
Morawiecki’s remarks came during a press conference in Brussels, Belgium, at a European Union event. He was commenting on his country’s direct response to Russia’s deployment of nuclear weapons in Belarus. Poland shares a large border with Belarus.
“The final decision will depend on our American and NATO partners. We declare our will to act quickly in this matter,” Morawiecki told reporters. “We do not want to sit idly by while [Russian President Vladimir] Putin escalates all sorts of threats.”
In the first of such moves since the 1990s, Moscow has started to deploy nuclear weapons in another country amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. Last month, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko announced that his country has started taking deliveries of Russian tactical nuclear weapons. Moscow’s nuclear weapons deployment in Belarus is being perceived as another nuclear threat by the NATO allies and a breach in the nuclear nonproliferation treaty.
Putin, however, compares Russia’s deployment of nuclear weapons in Belarus to the U.S.’s deployment of similar weapons in Europe, stating that the move does not violate Russia’s nuclear obligations. Russia has helped Belarus upgrade 10 aircraft capable of carrying tactical nuclear warheads.
Three of the 31 NATO member countries are nuclear-armed states. This includes the United States, the United Kingdom, and France. Only the U.S. has deployed its nuclear weapons in different European countries under the nuclear sharing program. Germany, Belgium, Turkey, Italy, and the Netherlands are currently hosting the U.S. nuclear weapons in Europe.
This is not the first time that Poland has expressed interest in hosting nuclear weapons. Due to the increasing threats from Russia and Belarus, Poland showed interest in joining NATO’s nuclear sharing program on multiple occasions last year.
“The problem, first of all, is that we don’t have nuclear weapons. There is no indication that we will have it in our possession in the near future. But there is always the potential possibility of participating in nuclear sharing,” Poland’s President Andrej Duda said during an interview in 2022.
So far, none of NATO’s nuclear-armed member states has responded to Poland’s bid to host nuclear weapons. However, the Polish army has been a regular participant in NATO’s annual two-week training exercise, Steadfast Noon, which is designed to prepare members for handling nuclear weapons and to practice putting the nuclear sharing program into effect.
In response to the Polish prime minister’s statement, the former President of Russia and Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said that “The only danger arising from the request to deploy nuclear weapons to Poland is that such weapons will be used.”
Poland is currently bolstering its arsenal with active procurement of conventional weapons. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Warsaw has ramped up its military acquisitions while supplying crucial weapons to Ukraine for its defense. Poland has also signed multi-billion dollars deals with the U.S., South Korea, and other countries to acquire new tanks, missiles, and fighter jets.
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[…] Mateusz Morawiecki also expressed interest to join NATO’s nuclear weapons sharing program and host nuclear weapons after Russia deployed its tactical nuclear weapons in neighboring […]