France and Poland enhance defence cooperation amid Russia’s threat

France and Poland planned increased defence cooperation in a meeting of their leaders held on Monday against a background of Russia’s expansionist threat and a waning US commitment to Europe.

French President Emmanuel Macron and Polish premier Donald Tusk told a news conference in Gdansk, northern Poland, that the scope of the boosted ties between the two NATO members could cover elements of nuclear deterrence, military satellites, joint drills, defence industry and shared intelligence.

“Our cooperation, whether in the nuclear domain or in joint exercises…is a cooperation that knows no bounds,” Tusk said.

Macron said work would be done in the next few months allowing “concrete progress,” notably when it came to nuclear deterrence.

“There may be deployments” to Poland of French warplanes carrying nuclear warheads, he said.

While France has specified it would retain full control over the decision to use force, Polish forces could contribute in areas such as early warning and air defence, both sides say.

The public display of closer relations between the countries reflected adaptation by European Union nations of a changed threat environment and to US President Donald Trump publicly disparaging NATO and toying with the idea of pulling his country out of the alliance.

Trump has called NATO allies “cowards” and the alliance itself a “paper tiger” in frustration that its members did not join the US-Israeli war in Iran.

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which shares a border with Poland, and growing concern, particularly among Baltic states, that Moscow may use its military and wartime economy to threaten NATO’s eastern rim are also spurring greater focus on defence.

‘Similar views’

Macron’s trip to Gdansk to see Tusk followed their two countries signing a treaty of friendship and enhanced cooperation in May last year.

During Monday’s visit, European industry giant Airbus, France’s Thales and Poland’s Radmor group announced an agreement on developing military communications satellites.

The accord on the geostationary orbiters, which would serve Poland’s armed forces, was signed in the presence of the French and Polish defence ministers.

On the eve of Macron’s arrival, Tusk said Warsaw and Paris “have very similar views on how to build Europe’s strength.”

One theme Macron has repeatedly come back to is a “European preference” for military procurement to ensure greater independence and self-reliance on the continent.

That has led to some tension with eastern European countries, including Poland, which are strongly attached to their relationship with the United States and whose forces rely on US-made weapon systems.

Poland, though, has in recent years massively invested in modernising its armed forces. Its military spending is among the highest in NATO and is expected to exceed 4.8% of GDP in 2026.

But the country has placed “colossal orders for American F-35s, Apache attack helicopters, Patriot missiles, and Abrams tanks”, a European diplomat close to the matter told the AFP news agency.

Poland participates in a new EU programme called SAFE (Security Action For Europe) that came into effect last year and under which countries can get EU loans to buy weapons and expand defence manufacturing.

But Tusk faces friction over that from his country’s nationalist president, Karol Nawrocki, who has called SAFE as a threat to Poland’s “independence.”

Poland is now led once again by a pro-European government following Tusk’s electoral victory in 2023 but it remains fundamentally attached to its relationship with the United States.

“Washington’s strategy has indeed changed” toward Europeans, Tusk said at a press conference. But “Polish-American and Euro-American relations” remain “very important,” he added.

Additional sources • AFP