French President Emmanuel Macron and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk are meeting on Monday in the north of Poland to strengthen defence cooperation in the face of Russian threats and weakening US commitment to Europe.\n<\/p>\n
The meeting is the first since the two countries signed a treaty of friendship and enhanced cooperation last May.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have very similar views on how to build Europe\u2019s strength, the sovereignty of Poland, of France, and of Europe,\u201d Tusk said on the eve of the visit.\n<\/p>\n
As Europe ramps up its defensive capabilities in the face of Russia\u2019s four-year-old invasion of Ukraine and US President Donald Trump\u2019s questioning of the Atlantic alliance, the two leaders will discuss the possibility of a Polish role in France\u2019s nuclear deterrent.<\/p>\n
While France has specified it would retain full control over the decision to use force, Polish forces could contribute in areas such as early warning and air defence, both sides say.\n<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u2018European preference\u2019 \u2013\n<\/p>\n
Macron\u2019s office said the two countries would also enter into a partnership on a \u201cmilitary communications satellite project,\u201d involving \u201cFrench, Polish, and other European operators.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another key issue is \u201cEuropean preference\u201d for military procurement, which Macron has promoted. That\u2019s led to some tension with Eastern European countries, including Poland, strongly attached to their relationship with the United States.\n<\/p>\n
Poland, in recent years, has massively invested in modernising its armed forces, making it an attractive ally.\n<\/p>\n
Poland\u2019s military spending is among the highest in NATO, expected to exceed 4.8 percent of GDP in 2026, far ahead of most countries in Europe.\n<\/p>\n
But the country has placed \u201ccolossal orders for American F-35s, Apache attack helicopters, Patriot missiles, and Abrams tanks,\u201d a European diplomat close to the matter told AFP. <\/p>\n
Nationalist President Karol Nawrocki, a rival to Tusk, \u00a0is opposed to Poland\u2019s participation in the EU\u2019s SAFE Security Action For Europe program, citing a threat to his country\u2019s \u201cindependence\u201d, even if it would contribute tens of billions of euros to its defence.\n<\/p>\n
\u2013 Pro-European fold \u2013\n<\/p>\n
Poland is now led once again by a pro-European government following Tusk\u2019s electoral victory in 2023, but it remains fundamentally attached to its relationship with the United States.<\/p>\n
That relationship has been tested by Trump\u2019s repeated insults against Europe and the war he started with Iran.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWashington\u2019s strategy has indeed changed\u201d toward Europeans, the Prime Minister told a press conference. But \u201cPolish-American and Euro-American relations\u201d remain \u201cvery important,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
Macron and Tusk will also welcome Hungary\u2019s return to the pro-European fold after the electoral defeat of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who had cast himself as the leader of the illiberal and nationalist camp in the EU.\n<\/p>\n
Monday\u2019s meetings are being held in Gdansk, a symbol of Europe\u2019s upheavals in the 20th century.\n<\/p>\n
The port city, which lies about 150 kilometres from the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, was the site of iconic shipyards where the pro-democracy Solidarnosc (known in English as Solidarity) movement was born, which eventually resulted in the end of Soviet rule.\n<\/p>\n
Macron began his trip with a visit to a nearby French military cemetery, following in the footsteps of previous visiting French presidents.\n<\/p>\n
AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"French President Emmanuel Macron and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk are meeting on Monday in the north of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[1017,64,712,2469,75,709,2470,323,9,126],"class_list":["post-3030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-donald-tusk","tag-defence-cooperation","tag-donald-tusk","tag-emmanuel-macron","tag-european-sovereignty","tag-european-union","tag-france","tag-military-spending","tag-nato","tag-poland","tag-russia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}