President Duda calls on US to place nuclear weapons in Poland

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WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland's President Andrzej Duda again called on the United States to deploy nuclear weapons to Poland as a deterrent to Russia, the latest indication that the frontline NATO nation is increasingly considering nuclear protection as fears of Russia grow.

Duda made his appeal in an interview with the Financial Times published on Thursday, repeating an appeal he made to the Biden administration in 2022.

Duda's adviser for international affairs, Wojciech Kolarski, followed up on Duda's appeal with an interview on Poland's RMF FM radio Thursday morning in which he argued that nuclear protection would improve security for Poland, a NATO member along the alliance's eastern flank that shares borders with Ukraine, Belarus and the Russian territory of Kaliningrad.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk, a political opponent of Duda's, said last week that Poland was in talks with France concerning President’s Emmanuel Macron’s proposal to use France’s nuclear deterrent to protect the continent from Russian threats. Moscow called that idea “extremely confrontational.”

Tusk made his comment to parliament after Macron said he has decided to open a “strategic debate” on using France’s nuclear deterrent to protect European allies amid concerns over potential U.S. disengagement. The French president described Moscow as a “threat to France and Europe” in a televised address to the nation.

France is the only nuclear power in the European Union.