Polish president says boosting central Europe's defense capabilities of profound importance

By Ahmet Gencturk

ATHENS (AA) – Boosting defense capabilities of central and eastern European countries is of profound importance, the Polish president said on Sunday, state news agency PAP reported.

Asked by reporters in Vilnius, where Andrzej Duda met his Lithuanian counterpart Gitanas Nauseda, if the crisis Ukraine is currently dealing with were to approach the countries on the Baltic coast, he said: "Our most important task, ours, here and now, in our part of Europe, is building our defensive potential."

This endeavor would include demanding from NATO countries, particularly from the US, to station troops in Poland, he added.

Also underscoring the importance of the support for Ukraine, Duda said he and the Lithuanian president would soon meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss the matter.

On Poland’s ongoing ambitious programs for the re-armament and re-organization of the armed forces, he said: "We want to have an army of 300,000 in order to really be ready to defend the (Polish) Republic if the need arises, we will arm ourselves so that no one attacks us.”

Russia launched its "special military operation" in Ukraine in February 2022. Since then, Poland, and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have been some of the most significant supporters of Kyiv.