WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will host Poland’s president and prime minister on Tuesday for White House talks with Polish leaders seeking to pressure Washington to resolve the standoff over replenishing funds for Ukraine at a crucial moment in the war to break through in Europe.
Ahead of the visit, President Andrzej Duda called on other members of the NATO alliance to increase their defense spending to 3% of their GDP as Russia puts its own economy on a war footing and continues its plans to conquer Ukraine. Poland already spends 4% of its own economic output on defense, double NATO’s current target of 2%.
“The war in Ukraine has clearly shown that the United States is and must remain the leader on security issues in Europe and the world,” Duda said in an address to Poland on Monday. “However, other NATO countries must also take greater responsibility for ensuring the security of the entire alliance and intensively modernizing and strengthening their forces.”
In a Washington Post op-ed highlighting his call for greater NATO spending, Duda argued that Russia was switching its economy into “war mode,” spending nearly 30% of its annual budget on armaments.
“This figure and other data from Russia are alarming,” Duda wrote. “Vladimir Putin’s regime poses the greatest threat to world peace since the end of the Cold War.”
The Biden administration suggested that Duda’s call to increase the defense spending target for NATO countries could be too ambitious, at least for now.
“I think the first step is for every country to meet the 2% threshold, and we’ve seen improvement in that,” said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller. “But I think this is the first step before we start talking about an additional proposal.”
Biden invited Duda and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk to meetings to mark the 25th anniversary of Poland’s accession to NATO, a historic step Poland took in the West after breaking away from Moscow’s sphere of influence after decades of communist rule.
The visit also comes amid a standoff in Washington between Biden, a Democrat, and Republicans in the House of Representatives over Ukraine financing. House Republicans have blocked a $118 billion bipartisan package that includes $60 billion in funding for Ukraine, as well as funds for border security for Israel, Taiwan and the US.
Speaking to reporters before boarding his plane in Warsaw, Duda said that while the talks in Washington would mark an anniversary, they would mainly focus on future European security and “on Russia’s imperial policy, which is returned.”
The visit also gives Biden another chance to show how his views on NATO, a 32-member transatlantic military alliance, contrast with those of likely 2024 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
Trump has said that when he was president, he warned NATO allies that he would “encourage Russia to do whatever they want” against countries that are “behind” in meeting the alliance’s goal in the area of defense expenditure. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the Polish leaders’ visit was an opportunity to reflect on the countries’ shared “ironclad commitment to the NATO alliance, which makes us all more secure.”
Fears are growing across Europe over Ukraine’s fate as ammunition supplies run low and Russia makes gains on the battlefield in Ukraine, reversing its weak military performance at the start of a war launched in February 2022.
Duda and Tusk, who are also meeting with U.S. lawmakers while in Washington, are expected to add their voices to the call for House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to adopt a Senate approved relief package to advance. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni have also visited Washington in recent weeks to highlight the impact on Europe of the country’s impasse over Ukraine’s financing.
“The situation is really dire on the front lines,” said Michal Baranowski, director of Warsaw-based GMF East, part of the German Marshall Fund think tank. “We are not talking about something that can be solved in June or July, but has to be solved in March or April.”
During his State of the Union address last week, Biden said: “If anyone in this room thinks Putin will stop on Ukraine, I assure you, he won’t.”
According to Polish media, it is the first time in a quarter century that a Polish president and prime minister have been in Washington at the same time and the first time that both leaders have been welcomed to the White House at the same time. The gesture is widely seen as an acknowledgment of the gravity of this historic moment, with Russian strength growing as Ukraine’s weakens.
