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Warning that a \u201cprofound change of American geopolitics\u201d had put Poland, as well as Ukraine, in an \u201cobjectively more difficult situation,\u201d Prime Minister Donald Tusk of Poland on Friday said his country must drastically increase the size of its military and even \u201creach for opportunities related to nuclear weapons.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Tusk, in a detailed speech on security to the Polish Parliament, did not explicitly propose developing a nuclear arsenal, but said that \u201cit is time for us to look boldly at our possibilities of having the most modern weapons\u201d and explore options for nuclear and \u201cmodern unconventional weapons.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that his government was \u201ctalking seriously\u201d with France, Europe\u2019s only nuclear power aside from Britain and Russia, about the possibility of extending the French nuclear umbrella to other European countries. In addition, he said, Poland needs to ensure that all adult men are \u201ctrained in the event of war.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
His comments reflect the stark turnabout at the White House with the return of President Trump, who has publicly denigrated the NATO alliance, cast doubt on the U.S. commitment to defend much of Europe in the event of a Russian attack and falsely shifted the blame for Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine onto Kyiv. Mr. Trump\u2019s views were received with deep alarm in Warsaw and other parts of Eastern Europe that have <\/span>bitter memories of being bullied and repeatedly occupied by Russia over centuries.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Poland is a signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which prohibits countries that were not among five declared nuclear powers in 1970, when the treaty took effect, from acquiring atomic weapons.<\/p>\n But Israel, India and Pakistan, which never signed onto the ban, and North Korea, which withdrew from the treaty, have all developed nuclear weapons, and there has been sporadic discussion in Poland of trying to join the nuclear club. Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of Poland\u2019s former governing party, said in 2022 that he would, \u201cas a citizen,\u201d like to see Poland acquire nuclear weapons but added: \u201cAs a responsible politician, I must assess this idea as unrealistic.\u201d<\/p>\n Russian officials have suggested repeatedly that they could use nuclear arms in the fight against Ukraine, which is not a NATO member, particularly if the West ramps up its military aid to Ukraine. But repeated escalations in that aid so far have not prompted such a response.<\/p>\n The French Institute of International Relations warned in a report<\/a> last year that \u201cthe war in Ukraine has the potential to increase proliferation risks, as it signals that nuclear powers can attack an adversary with conventional capabilities while backing its actions with nuclear threats to deter third-party intervention.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe war also sends the message that nuclear weapons are a necessary guarantor of national security,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n When the Soviet Union fell apart in 1991, Ukraine held on its territory the world\u2019s third-largest nuclear arsenal but relinquished it in 1994, in return for a pledge from Russia, as well as the United States and Britain, to respect Ukrainian borders and refrain from the use or threat of military force. Many Ukrainians now regret giving up this arsenal, as their government has appealed in vain for NATO membership and direct involvement of Western forces in the war.<\/p>\n Poland is the biggest military power among former members of the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact military alliance that are now members of NATO. But those nations have long looked to the United States, with its nuclear arsenal and thousands of troops stationed in Poland and elsewhere in Eastern Europe, as the guarantor of its security.<\/p>\n Poland has a long tradition of nuclear expertise, dating <\/span>to Marie Sklodowska-Curie, the Polish-born French scientist who won Nobel Prizes in physics and chemistry for her pioneering work in discovering radioactivity \u2014 a word she coined \u2014 and radioactive elements in the early 20th century. Stanislaw Ulam, a Polish mathematician and physicist, played an important role in the Manhattan Project, the United States\u2019 secret atomic bomb program during World War II, and in the subsequent invention of the hydrogen bomb.<\/p>\n