The National Security Bureau (BBN) hosted a meeting of President Andrzej Duda with the government representatives and military commanders in connection with the North Atlantic Alliance summit starting on Tuesday, 28 June in Madrid.

The meeting was attended by the heads of the following ministries: Mariusz Błaszczak of the Ministry of National Defence, Zbigniew Rau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mariusz Kamiński of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration, Michał Dworczyk of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister, Paweł Soloch of the National Security Agency, Jakub Kumoch of the President’s Office for International Policy, Tomasz Szatkowski, the Polish ambassador to NATO, and military commanders.

“We expect that the new strategic concept of NATO will clearly define Russia as an aggressor, as a state that threatens the security of the Alliance countries”, said the head of BBN Paweł Soloch and added that Poland expects that after this summit NATO will be stronger, also in the context of the support provided to Ukraine.

The BBN chief pointed out that the accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO is in the interest not only of our region but also of the entire continent and will strengthen our potential and deterrence capabilities. “We will see if there will be a breakthrough on this issue at the summit. If not, of course, we assume that sooner or later both these countries will be NATO members,” Soloch noted.

The NATO summit is taking place in Madrid from 28 to 30 June. The announcements show that NATO will send more troops to eastern Europe in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The secretary-general of the Pact at a press conference in Brussels also announced an increase in the Alliance’s High Readiness Force to more than 300,000 soldiers. Currently, NATO’s rapid reaction force comprises around 40,000 troops.

Adrian Andrzejewski