Foreign Minister of Poland Radosław Sikorski and the President of Poland Andrzej Duda have been in touch with people from Trump’s team to discuss Russia’s war against Ukraine.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Sikorski noted that Poland has reached out to ”an alternative administration” in advance of the US vote.
Polish President Duda and Trump discussed the war in Ukraine during their two-and-half hour meeting at Trump Tower in New York in April.
“I talk to President Trump’s people and some of the things that they tell me about what they plan to do are interesting and creative,” Sikorski said. “Some of these things are controversial.” He didn’t elaborate on this matter.
Sikorski said he hopes Trump “would want to be a winner, and a winner of getting to a fair peace in Ukraine, which means Ukraine enjoying its liberty.”
Polish military spending going up
In reaction to the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Poland has been steadily increasing its military budget. In the aftermath of the recent NATO summit, Poland announced that it plans to increase its defense spending to 5% of economic output in 2025.
Sikorski said that Poland plans to spend about 4% this year before ramping up further.
Spending shouldn’t be “the only yardstick,” Sikorski added. As an example, NATO member Iceland has a small defense budget, but plays an important role by allowing allies to refuel planes.
And Poland sent troops to Afghanistan to help the US when needed, even when it was still spending less than 2% on defense, he said.
The prospect of Trump’s return to the White House in the November presidential election loomed large among NATO leaders during a three-day summit that ended in Washington on Thursday. The Republican has repeatedly hectored allies for not spending enough on defense and boasted that, if elected, he can end the war in Ukraine by the time of his inauguration in January.
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