PL
EN
The Warsaw European Conversation 2024 conference was an opportunity to renew Poland’s call for greater NATO spending on armaments. Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski warned that China and Russia were not sitting on their hands.
“In the United States, some Republican politicians are increasingly isolationist, but there are also those who would like a new international order. The current securityarchitecture was built mainly with the participation of Americans and their diplomats,” said Radosław Sikorski, the Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs. “At the Munich Security Conference, the G7 countries and emerging powers such as India, China and Brazil were asked if we live in a world shaped largely by Western ideas. Only 12 percent disagreed,” he mentioned.
“I would like to emphasize that the war in Ukraine is not a regional conflict. This issue is much bigger because the conflict is about the principles on which the future world will be built. The question now is: Where are we and where are we going?,” the minister wondered. “Russian imperialism has not yet destroyed the world order that we have been building over the past decades. We live in challenging times. NATO and the European Union must urgently adapt to the new reality. Between 1999 and 2021, total EU defense spending increased by 19.7 percent. That’s a good sign. During this period, US spending increased by 65.7 percent, but Russia’s spending during this time increased by 219.2 percent, and China’s by 519.2 percent,” Sikorski reminded.
Thus, Poland’s FAM continues Poland’s calls for NATO increasing its spending on armaments. Earlier, while in Washington, President Andrzej Duda called on NATO members to increase their military spending to at least 3 percent of their GDP. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has warned that he will not support allies who do not invest enough in defense.
Wojciech Jakóbik and Jacek Perzyński
