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Poland is backing Donald Trump’s call to NATO countries to spend 5 percent of their GDP on defense.
Trump’s call for alliance members to more than double the target for defense budgets has prompted a mixed reaction among Europe’s cash-strapped governments.
But Poland’s defense minister, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, told the Financial Times in an interview published Sunday that Warsaw can be “the transatlantic link” between Europe and the challenge set by the incoming United States president.
The Polish minister said that it “will take another decade” to reach Trump’s proposed goal, but that the U.S. president-elect “should not be criticized for setting a really ambitious target because otherwise there will be some countries that will continue to debate whether more spending is really needed.”
The proposed 5 percent target is more than any NATO member currently spends.
Poland comes closest, spending 4.12 percent of its GDP on defense in 2024, and aims to boost that to 4.7 percent this year. The U.S. spent 3.4 percent of its GDP on defense last year.
