Hello Pieter, I am not sure what happened to my post about Polish president and prime-minister being in Washington DC because of the anniversary of NATO. Did you see it or it was never posted?
here is more about it:
www.pbs.org/newshour/world/watch-biden-hosts-polands-president-and-prime-minister-at-the-white-houseBiden hosts Poland’s president and prime minister at the White HouseWASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is hosting Poland’s president and prime minister for White House talks on Tuesday with the Polish leaders looking to press Washington to break its impasse over replenishing funds for Ukraine at a critical moment in the war in Europe.
Ahead of the visit, President Andrzej Duda called on other members of the NATO alliance to raise their spending on defense to 3 percent of their GDP as Russia puts its own economy on a war footing and pushes forward with its plans to conquer Ukraine. Poland already spends 4 percent of its own economic output on defense, double the current target of 2 percent in NATO.
“The war in Ukraine has clearly shown that the United States is and should remain the leader in security issues in Europe and the world,” Duda said in an address to Poland on Monday. “However, other NATO countries must also take greater responsibility for the security of the entire alliance and intensively modernize and strengthen their troops.”
WATCH: White House holds briefing as the Pentagon announces $300 million in weapons for Ukraine
In a Washington Post opinion piece to spotlight his call for greater NATO spending, Duda argued that Russia was switching its economy to “war mode,” allocating close to 30 percent of its annual budget to arm itself.
“This figure and other data coming out of Russia are alarming,” Duda wrote. “Vladimir Putin’s regime poses the biggest threat to global peace since the end of the Cold War.”
The Biden administration suggested Duda’s call to raise the defense spending target for NATO countries may be, at least for the time being, overly ambitious.
“I think the first step is to get every country meeting the 2 percent threshold, and we’ve seen improvement of that,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said. “But I think that’s the first step before we start talking about an additional proposal.”
Biden invited Duda and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk for meetings to mark the 25th anniversary of Poland’s accession to NATO, a historic step Poland took into the West after breaking free from Moscow’s sphere of influence after decades of communist rule.
The visit also comes amid a standoff in Washington between Biden, a Democrat, and House Republicans on Ukraine funding. House Republicans have blocked a $118 billion bipartisan package that includes $60 billion in Ukraine funding, as well as funds for Israel, Taiwan and U.S. border security.
The Pentagon announced Tuesday it will rush about $300 million in weapons to Ukraine after finding some cost savings in its contracts. It’s the Biden administration’s first announced security package for Ukraine since December, when it acknowledged it was out of replenishment funds.
Duda met with U.S. lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Tuesday before his White House meeting. Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo. said Duda offered a blunt warning: If the U.S. does not deliver military aid to halt Russia’s advance, Poland will be on the frontlines of a conflict that involves European and American troops.
