Polish leaders plan to talk things out on nuclear weapons

WARSAW, Poland — Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk plans to discuss Poland’s potential involvement in NATO’s nuclear sharing program with President Andrzej Duda, Tusk said this week.

The announcement came in response to Duda’s declaration that Poland was ready to host U.S. nuclear weapons, and that talks with Washington to that end had been ongoing.

Polish leaders have previously telegraphed their willingness to join the alliance’s nuclear-sharing scheme to deter Russian aggression. That was especially the case when the right-wing Law and Justice party, which backs Duda, was in charge of the Cabinet and held the prime minister’s office. During the Trump administration, like-minded leaders in Warsaw sought to capitalize on Trump’s disdain for Europe, and Germany in particular, offering to host U.S. assets and withdrawn from elsewhere on the continent.

Tusk, who came to power when his Civic Coalition alliance and its partners won the general election last fall, has said he wants to repair Poland’s ties to the European Union and NATO. In that context, any discussions about altering the alliance’s atomic umbrella would be held by all member nations.

NATO’s nuclear-sharing arrangement entails select countries in Europe storing American atomic bombs that they would mount on their own jets and deploy in the case of nuclear war.

The alliance’s Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg put cold water on the idea of Poland becoming part of the mix when asked by reporters during an April 23 visit to Warsaw.

“There are no plans to expand the NATO sharing arrangements, no plans to deploy any more nuclear weapons in any additional NATO countries,” Stoltenberg said.

The issue came up in Berlin the next day.

A report by public broadcaster ZDF summarized the responses of two government spokespersons in a press conference in the German capital as favorable to the prospect of nuclear weapons on Polish soil.

However, a spokesman for the Ministry of Defence later told Defense News the positive reaction was not aimed specifically at the nuclear question, but rather a general comment on Poland’s commitment to strengthening the European Union and NATO, and Tusk’s plans to partake in the Germany-led European Sky Shield initiative (ESSI) , in particular.

The Polish prime minister reiterated his country’s interest in joining the ESSI scheme earlier this week during a joint appearance here with Stoltenberg and U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. He also pledged to collaborate with Britain as part of its air defense-focused Delivering Integrated Air and Missile Operational Networked Defences (DIAMOND) initiative.

“We are intensively cooperating [with the U.K.] as part of the British DIAMOND initiative which also serves our security, including our air security,” Tusk said.

Poland’s Narew short-range air defense system is based on MBDA’s extended-range variant of the Common Anti-Air Modular Missile, a weapon jointly developed by the U.K. and Italy.

Presented by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in August 2022 in reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the ESSI project now includes more than 20 countries. The program’s objectives comprise enhancing the interoperability of air defense systems and streamlining joint procurement of capabilities across Europe.

Sebastian Sprenger in Cologne, Germany, contributed to this report.

Jaroslaw Adamowski is the Poland correspondent for Defense News.

波兰华沙——波兰总理唐纳德·图斯克本周表示，他计划与总统安杰伊·杜达讨论波兰可能参与北约核共享计划的问题。

这一声明是对杜达宣布波兰已准备好接收美国核武器，并表示波兰一直在与华盛顿就此进行谈判的回应。

波兰领导人此前曾多次暗示愿意加入联盟的核共享机制，以遏制俄罗斯的侵略。尤其是在支持杜达的右翼法律与公正党执政期间，这种意愿更为强烈。在特朗普执政时期，华沙一些与波兰志同道合的领导人试图利用特朗普对欧洲，尤其是对德国的蔑视，提出为美国资产提供托管场所，并撤出欧洲其他地区。

图斯克去年秋天领导的公民联盟及其盟友赢得大选后上台执政，他曾表示希望修复波兰与欧盟和北约的关系。在此背景下，任何关于修改北约核保护伞的讨论都将由所有成员国共同进行。

北约的核共享安排要求欧洲部分国家储存美国制造的原子弹，以便在发生核战争时将其安装在自己的飞机上并部署。

该联盟秘书长延斯·斯托尔滕贝格在 4 月 23 日访问华沙期间被记者问及波兰加入该联盟的想法时，泼了一盆冷水。

斯托尔滕贝格表示：“北约没有扩大核武器共享安排的计划，也没有在任何其他北约国家部署更多核武器的计划。”

第二天，这个问题在柏林被提出。

德国公共广播公司 ZDF 的一份报告总结了两位政府发言人在德国首都举行的新闻发布会上的回应，他们对在波兰领土上部署核武器的前景持支持态度。

然而，国防部发言人后来告诉《防务新闻》，这一积极反应并非专门针对核问题，而是对波兰致力于加强欧盟和北约的承诺，特别是对图斯克参与德国主导的欧洲天空之盾倡议（ESSI）的计划的总体评价。

本周早些时候，波兰总理在与斯托尔滕贝格和英国首相里希·苏纳克共同出席活动时，重申了波兰加入ESSI计划的意愿。他还承诺将与英国合作，参与其以防空为重点的“交付一体化防空和导弹作战网络防御系统”（DIAMOND）计划。

“作为英国‘钻石计划’的一部分，我们正在与英国进行密切合作，该计划也服务于我们的安全，包括我们的空中安全，”塔斯克说。

波兰的纳雷夫短程防空系统以MBDA公司生产的通用防空模块化导弹的远程版本为基础，该导弹是由英国和意大利联合开发的武器。

欧洲防空系统一体化倡议（ESSI）项目由德国总理奥拉夫·朔尔茨于2022年8月提出，旨在应对俄罗斯入侵乌克兰。该项目目前已涵盖20多个国家。其目标包括提升欧洲防空系统的互操作性，并简化欧洲范围内的联合采购流程。

德国科隆的塞巴斯蒂安·斯普伦格对本报道亦有贡献。

Jaroslaw Adamowski 是《防务新闻》驻波兰记者。