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As President Trump casts doubt on U.S. alliances, Poland needs to double its military manpower and consider more destructive weapons, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said.
March 7, 2025, 5:00 p.m. ET
Warning that a “profound change of American geopolitics” had put Poland, as well as Ukraine, in an “objectively more difficult situation,” Prime Minister Donald Tusk of Poland on Friday said his country must drastically increase the size of its military and even “reach for opportunities related to nuclear weapons.”
Mr. Tusk, in a detailed speech on security to the Polish Parliament, did not explicitly propose developing a nuclear arsenal, but said that “it is time for us to look boldly at our possibilities of having the most modern weapons” and explore options for nuclear and “modern unconventional weapons.”
He added that his government was “talking seriously” with France, Europe’s only nuclear power aside from Britain and Russia, about the possibility of extending the French nuclear umbrella to other European countries. In addition, he said, Poland needs to ensure that all adult men are “trained in the event of war.”
His comments reflect the stark turnabout at the White House with the return of President Trump, who has publicly denigrated the NATO alliance, cast doubt on the U.S. commitment to defend much of Europe in the event of a Russian attack and falsely shifted the blame for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine onto Kyiv. Mr. Trump’s views were received with deep alarm in Warsaw and other parts of Eastern Europe that have bitter memories of being bullied and repeatedly occupied by Russia over centuries.
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Poland is a signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which prohibits countries that were not among five declared nuclear powers in 1970, when the treaty took effect, from acquiring atomic weapons.
