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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, has welcomed his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron’s idea of extending France’s “nuclear umbrella” to cover European allies. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Donald Tusk has suggested that Poland could even seek to develop its own nuclear arsenal.
Amid doubts over America’s commitment to defending Europe under the Trump administration, Macron last week announced that he had launched a “strategic debate on the protection of our allies on the European continent through our [nuclear] deterrence”. France is the European Union’s only nuclear power.
In response, Duda welcomed the idea, saying during a visit to NATO’s headquarters last week that it would be “beneficial for Polish security”.
In an interview on Sunday with French broadcaster LCI, the Polish president added that he had received Macron’s idea “with great satisfaction”.
“It is a gesture showing France’s sense of responsibility for European security, for its allies, including Poland,” said Duda. “Every formula of allied cooperation that increases our security is valuable to us.”
Meanwhile, speaking to journalists on Friday after a major security speech in which he outlined plans to expand Poland’s armed forces to half a million soldiers and introduce military training for all adult men, Tusk also commented on Macron’s offer and Poland’s own possible nuclear ambitions.
The prime minister said that Poland was “analysing [Macron’s] proposal carefully”, in particular with regard to “what it means in terms of control over these weapons”, reports the Polish Press Agency (PAP).
Tusk noted, for example, that the United Kingdom’s nuclear arsenal is heavily reliant on cooperation with the United States. “If we decide to do it, it is worth being sure that it is in our hands and we make the decisions,” he added.
“We see what has happened to Ukraine now and how it has become a victim of attack because it got rid of the nuclear weapons it had,” continued Tusk, referring to Ukraine’s decision in the 1990s to get rid of its former Soviet nuclear weapons in return for security assurances from Russia, the US and UK.
“Today it is clear that we would be safer if we had our own nuclear arsenal, there is no doubt about that,” said the prime minister. “But in any case, the path to this would be a long one, and there would have to be consensus on the issue.”
💬 Premier @DonaldTusk w #Sejm: Musimy mieć świadomość, że Polska musi sięgać po najnowocześniejsze możliwości związane także z bronią nuklearną i nowoczesną bronią niekonwencjonalną. Czeka nas bardzo poważny wyścig. I to jest wyścig o bezpieczeństwo, nie wyścig do wojny.
— Kancelaria Premiera (@PremierRP) March 7, 2025
The Baltic states of Latvia and Lithuania have also responded positively to Macron’s proposal to widen France’s nuclear umbrella, reports the Associated Press. However, Russia called the French president’s ideas “extremely confrontational”.
Last year, when Joe Biden was still US president, Duda declared that Poland has been discussing the idea of hosting American nuclear weapons under NATO’s “nuclear sharing” system.
That prompted a rebuke from Tusk’s government, with which Duda has regularly clashed. Foreign minister Radosław Sikorski asked the president to “not to discuss such delicate and secret matters in public, because it does not help Poland”.
Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Main image credit: Jakub Szymczuk/KPRP
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
