Washington | Between threats from Donald Trump on NATO and warnings from American intelligence on Ukraine, Joe Biden will try on Tuesday to reassure the Polish president and Prime Minister, whom he receives at the White House.
The meeting comes as the US intelligence community, in a report to the Senate released Monday, warns that “the dynamic is shifting increasingly in favor of Moscow” in the war against Ukraine, for currently deprived of aid from the United States due to a political deadlock in Congress.
The American president intends to reaffirm with his counterpart Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Donald Tusk an “unwavering commitment to the defense of Ukraine in the face of the brutal aggression of Russia,” said the White House.
The meeting, coinciding with the 25th anniversary of Poland’s entry into NATO, will also be an opportunity to prepare for the next summit of the transatlantic alliance in Washington.
Political adversaries, the conservative president and the pro-European Prime Minister displayed a desire for cohesion before this trip.
“I disagree politically with President Andrzej Duda on almost every issue, but when it comes to the security of our homeland, we must act together and we will. Not only during the visit to the United States,” Donald Tusk wrote on Monday on the social network X (Twitter).
The fate of NATO will play a central role.
“Clear response to Russian aggression”
Andrzej Duda estimated on Monday that the member countries of the transatlantic organization should increase their military budgets, from 2 to 3% of gross domestic product, in order to send a “clear and bold response to Russian aggression”.
The alliance currently has a spending target set at 2% of GDP, a threshold not respected by several countries.
Poland, for its part, already devotes around 4% of its GDP to defense, in particular through major purchases of American arms.
Joe Biden presents himself as the guarantor of the future of NATO, particularly in the face of threats from Donald Trump, his Republican predecessor and rival for the next American presidential election in November.
The latter had recently affirmed that he would “encourage” Russia to attack NATO countries if they did not pay their share, comments that his 81-year-old democratic opponent has extensively criticized.
The American president, however, estimated, in a brief exchange with the press on Monday, that “there was no need to deploy more American troops on the Polish border”.
Some 10,000 American troops are currently positioned in the country.
Joe Biden once again asked the American Congress, during a solemn speech last week, to release an envelope of 60 billion dollars for Ukraine, which has not received American assistance since the end of December.
The resumption of aid has so far encountered opposition from the Republican Party, master of one of the two chambers of Congress, the House of Representatives.
