President Andrzej Duda has announced an increased Polish military presence in deterrence and defence missions on NATO’s eastern flank. Upon his return from the Madrid summit, the president will convene a National Security Council.

“Russia is the biggest threat to NATO’s eastern flank, to the Baltic states, to Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. We are seeking to strengthen the NATO presence on the alliance’s eastern flank, secondly, to strengthen readiness” said President Andrzej Duda before his departure to the Spanish capital.

During the Madrid summit of the North Atlantic Alliance, NATO is expected to adopt its new Strategic Concept, which will contain the organisation’s goals and tasks for the next decade. Poland is to increase its presence on the Alliance’s eastern flank as part of the NATO mission. So far less than half a thousand Polish soldiers are serving as part of multinational brigades in Romania and Latvia.

On Monday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg announced the strengthening of the Alliance’s rapid reaction forces. The scale of the undertaking is enormous: the number of soldiers will increase as much as eight times, from 40,000 to over 300,000.

In addition, NATO states are planning to strengthen multinational battalions on the eastern flank. Some of them will be transformed into brigades. During his meeting with the media, Stoltenberg suggested that Poland would be one of the countries to benefit from this decision.

The US television NBC News, citing sources in the White House, announces that President Joe Biden will announce an extension of the increased US military presence in Poland. This refers to the part of the 2,000 troops that were sent to our country after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

After the NATO summit in Madrid, the president wants to convene the National Security Council. The subject of the meeting will be the summit’s resolutions and the current security situation.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński