In an interview with news outlet Fakt, Polish President Andrzej Duda has said that “we are ready” if NATO allies “decide to deploy nuclear weapons as part of nuclear sharing on our territory” to secure the alliance’s “eastern flank.”
The interview was published just one day after Polemology.net proposed that Poland could very well join the nuclear club in the years to come.
“This has been a topic of Polish-American talks for some time,” Duda told Fakt. “I have already talked about this several times. I must admit that when asked about it, I declared our readiness.”
On Sunday, I wrote that Warsaw might consider developing a domestic nuclear deterrent in response to Vladimir Putin’s decision to “give” Belarus nuclear weapons in 2023.
Yesterday, Duda cited Russia “relocating its nuclear weapons to Belarus” and “increasingly militarizing the Königsberg” enclave on the Baltic Sea as reasons for NATO to reposition nuclear weapons with the Polish Air Force.
At the time, then-Prime Minister Mateusz Morawieck signalled Poland’s desire to join the nuclear sharing program in response. That impulse has clearly survived the Polish elections last October.
“If our allies decide to deploy nuclear weapons as part of nuclear sharing also on our territory to strengthen the security of NATO's eastern flank, we are ready for it,” Duda said yesterday.
“We are an ally in the North Atlantic Alliance and we also have obligations in this respect, that is, we simply implement a common policy.”
The War Zone reports that NATO’s nuclear-sharing agreement “is currently entirely centered on U.S. B61-series air-dropped nuclear bombs” forward-deployed at air bases. “In a crisis where the U.S. and the alliance approves their use, they would then be loaded onto combat jets belonging to participating countries.”
Duda did not say which Polish aircraft could be used to carry nuclear weapons. However, in January 2020, Poland inked a deal worth $4.6 billion to acquire 32 F-35A Lightning II fighter jets from the United States.
While this arrangement would secure the needs of the alliance, Poland is also getting ready to establish a domestic nuclear energy industry, the first step in creating an independent nuclear deterrent.
In the interview, Duda also hailed “the construction, together with the Americans, of the first nuclear power plant” in Poland, “which is to help solve our energy problems in the future and the issues of energy transformation.”
He expressed optimism that domestic politics will not delay the project.
This power plant is essential if we are to achieve the energy transition and maintain energy sovereignty. If we do not implement the project of building a nuclear power plant or nuclear power plants, because we planned to have more of them, it will turn out that around 2050 we will have to obtain electricity from outside.
I believe that it is in the interest of the Republic of Poland and the sovereignty of our country that we are able to produce this energy in the amount we need for our daily functioning. The only solution to ensure this is the creation of nuclear power plants, so I hope that the current government will not delay or block these investments, because these are extremely important matters from the point of view of Poland's security and our reason of state.
We will continue to report on this story as it develops.