Poland will seek greater autonomy in nuclear security and may in future pursue access to nuclear weapons, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on March 3.
Following the US-Israeli war with Iran and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, now in its fifth year, European countries are stepping up deterrence efforts amid uncertainty over long-term US security guarantees.
“Poland takes nuclear security very seriously. As our autonomous capabilities grow, we will strive to prepare Poland for the most autonomous actions possible in this matter in the future,” Tusk said before a weekly cabinet meeting.
Tusk said earlier this week that Poland was ready to hold talks with France after President Emmanuel Macron proposed a “nuclear umbrella” by deploying nuclear-capable aircraft to allied states. Several other EU member states, including Germany, Sweden and Denmark, also expressed interest in the initiative.
The next stage of discussions is due at a nuclear energy summit in Paris on March 10, Tusk said.
Tusk has favoured European cooperation on nuclear deterrence, while President Karol Nawrocki has indicated a preference for cooperation with the United States.
Nawrocki said last month that he was “a big supporter of Poland joining the nuclear project.”
However, the president’s foreign policy chief, Marcin Przydacz, said this week that he doubted whether “the French side has an adequate nuclear arsenal to actually provide a protective umbrella” and argued that the United States possessed the most credible deterrent capability.
Poland has been a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty since the 1960s and has committed not to seek or acquire nuclear weapons. Last year, however, Warsaw signed a treaty with France that opened the possibility of coming under French nuclear protection.
The debate over deterrence has intensified since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. That year, then-President Andrzej Duda said Poland was open to hosting nuclear weapons and had discussed the issue with Washington.
Two years later, Duda reiterated Poland’s readiness to host weapons from NATO allies and, in 2025, said that he welcomed Macron’s idea of extending France’s “nuclear umbrella” to European partners.
In March last year, in an address to the parliament, Tusk said Poland would examine gaining access to nuclear weapons.
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