US President Joe Biden met with Polish leaders, President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Donald Tusk, at the White House. The meeting took place on the 25th anniversary of Poland’s accession to NATO.

“This historic visit commemorated the 25th anniversary of Poland’s accession to NATO and highlighted both nations’ commitment to the North Atlantic Alliance, which makes us all safer”, said the White House.

Donald Tusk, the head of the Polish government, in a statement to the media after the meeting, said that the conversation focused on assistance to Ukraine from the US, the European Union and NATO countries. “We discussed to what extent it is possible to quickly unblock US aid. We exchanged remarks on how we, Poles, mobilise the European Union for this aid”, conveyed the Prime Minister.

Polish-American cooperation, both in terms of nuclear energy and further equipment support for the Polish army, was also a topic of conversation. “There is information about a possible loan from the Americans, a favourable loan for helicopters”, the Prime Minister indicated.

President Andrzej Duda said after the meeting at the White House that the talks had taken place in an elevated and pleasant atmosphere. ‘We had a conversation about security, we talked with President Joe Biden about the situation in our part of Europe, and of course also the war in Ukraine’, he reported.

Andrzej Duda added that he also spoke to President Biden about an initiative to propose to NATO allies to raise defence spending to 3 % of GDP.

“It is not only about how much we will spend on arms, but it is also about whether we will be able to rebuild the arms industry in Europe to a great extent, whether we will be able to produce sufficient quantities of munitions relatively quickly in order to secure our countries and possibly also to be able to help those who could potentially be attacked”, the president stressed.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński