Expert on why Poland raising the issue of nuclear weapons deployment on its territory again

Poland is raising the stakes: President Andrzej Duda announced the country's readiness to deploy American nuclear weapons – allegedly, as part of the obligations to NATO. There is no corresponding decision by Washington on this issue, but this is not the first time such conversations have been conducted by Belarus’ neighbours. In his talk with Alfa Radio, political expert Vadim Borovik explained the grounds for such rhetoric.

The expert stressed that the Polish authorities primarily aim to promote in every possible way the legend that Russia is an aggressor. “This means Poland needs to show that it is determined, if necessary, to deploy nuclear weapons or carriers capable of delivering these weapons on its territory,” he said. “Poles' request to the US to send them 500 HIMARS launchers is also guided by this logic, but there are just 400 of them in the United States. It turns out that the American industry is not able to fulfil all their desires, but Poland wants to militarise itself, so it buys similar weapons from South Korea.”

According to Mr. Borovik, Poland's actions can also be regarded from the point of view of its paranoia — certain fears of an escalation of the conflict in Ukraine, so the country is considering all options in order to be able to inflict an asymmetric response to the actions of the alleged aggressor. “This is their logic, but Warsaw does not always ‘waltz’ on its own: Washington is leading this ‘dance’, and it could well have asked its junior partners to come up with such an initiative at the right time. After all, from the point of view of strategic planning, it is advantageous for the United States to deploy appropriate weapons in Europe,” he explained.

“I would like to remind that there is a 1997 agreement between Russia and NATO, which states that new countries that joined the alliance after 1997 cannot deploy nuclear weapons on their territory,” the expert added.

At the same time, as noted by Mr. Borovik, the West has long proved how well it knows how to interpret certain norms to its advantage, “In any case, such escalation is dangerous for us. I am mostly concerned that Americans succeed in maintaining tension in the region. Russia, for example, is now being accused of going to attack European countries. Actually, if Putin had a goal to seize territories, he would not have sat down with Ukraine at the negotiating table on the third day [of the operation]. Washington needs destabilisation, but Russia needs peace.”