Polish FM: Europe must become stronger than Russia in coming years
Photo: Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski (GettyImages)
Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski stated that Europe should set a goal to surpass Russia in terms of defense capabilities within the coming years. He emphasized the need to increase defense spending and develop the military-industrial complex, he made this statement during a discussion at the NATO Public Forum.
Sikorski recalled that Poland has been spending over 2% of its GDP on defense for the past 15 years, and that countries located near Russia do not need to be convinced of the necessity of such spending.
"For us, Russia is the main threat," Sikorski emphasized.
He believes that Western allies should learn from the example of the war in Ukraine.
"They've built 200 factories in three years — because they know they are at war time. We are not at war; we are in a crisis time. We need to build drone armies, we need to be much better at signals and electronic warfare... We don’t need to be as good as the United States. We just need to be better than the Russians," Sikorski said.
The minister also noted that the Russians are learning very quickly. In the context of increasing defense spending, he stressed that this involves "real money."
"Putin has woken a giant. We are now going to spend real money on defense. Within a few years, Russia will find that it'll be very difficult for them to match our level of spending, which is exactly what happened to the Soviet Union in the 1980s," Sikorski said, also referring to the EU’s decisions on rearmament and the SAFE instrument.
According to Sikorski, partners must learn from Ukrainians.
"The Ukrainian army is the biggest army in Europe on our side, and the Ukrainian defense industry is the most efficient defense industry on our side. We need each other," Sikorski stated.
NATO Summit
The NATO summit has started today in the Dutch city of The Hague. The main topic of the meeting will be an increase in defense spending from 2% to 5% of GDP.
Meanwhile, media reports suggest that Spain has managed to secure a concession on this issue.
