Andrzej Duda, the Polish president, has said that Russia has become the biggest threat to Nato countries.

He made the statement on Wednesday afternoon, at the press conference following a Nato summit in Vilnius, dominated by debate over Russia’s war against Ukraine and Kyiv’s aspirations to join the alliance.

Duda said that for many years Russia had been called a Nato partner.

„There were allies who strongly opted for including the name of Russia as a Nato partner in Nato documents,” he argued.

But, Duda added, the alliance’s narrative towards Russia, which is waging an aggressive war in Ukraine, was now changing.

„Russia ceases to be a Nato partner to any extent,” he said.

„Russia is today the aggressor… and the greatest threat to Nato countries and this is how it is directly called and said… also by the North Atlantic Alliance.”

Talking about Nato’s defence plans Duda said: „So far, we have had so-called contingency plans… kind of, let’s say, provisional plans,” but he added that „for the first time since the Cold War, the alliance has made and approved defence plans… that today see the defence of the alliance’s area in a different way than it has been so far.”

He called it a „ground-breaking decision.”

Duda also told reporters that in the final communiqué of the summit, Belarus was mentioned five times as an area of strategic and military threat to be under Nato’s special observation and supervision, with particular emphasis on the so-called ‘Brest Gate’, which forms part of the Polish-Belarusian border.

„It is estimated that if there was an attack on the Brest Gate, we could count on about 100,000 alliance soldiers to be sent to our territory for immediate defence,” he said.

„These assumptions are currently being adopted and approved by the alliance as part of its defence plans,” he added.

Duda also said that Nato’s nuclear umbrella was part of discussions on security.

„This nuclear umbrella, as it is stressed, extends over all the states of the alliance, so in the context of the announcements of (Russian) nuclear weapons relocation (in Belarus), this statement clearly corresponds to the threats,” he added.

„It should be read as follows: if Russian nuclear weapons are to be used against Nato countries in any way, Nato countries will also respond in an appropriate way. This message is clear,” he argued.

Duda also welcomed the idea of creating warehouses for Nato weapons in Poland, saying they are needed to relocate soldiers „so that the whole infrastructure does not have to be brought with these troops, so these armaments must be stockpiled.”

„Such a decision has been made,” he added.

„These warehouses will also be replenished and there is a decision of the alliance in this matter.” he continued.

Commenting on Ukraine’s apparent disappointment with not being immediately invited to Nato, Duda said: „It is impossible today to admit Ukraine to the alliance on full terms, because if Ukraine were admitted today on full terms, with full membership rights to the alliance, it should be assumed that on the same or the next day it would apply for the application of Article 5, that is for collective defence.”

He further argued that if the alliance were to behave as it should behave in such a situation, „we would have to send our soldiers to the front, like all other allied countries.” (PAP)

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