2024-11-11 16:02 update: 2024-11-12, 18:25
Photo: PAP/Paweł Supernak
Polish President Andrzej Duda has called "a fantasy" the belief that Europe is able to defend itself, without the US assistance, from attack by a reconstituted Russian force.
Duda made the statement at the observances of Poland's Independence Day falling on November 11 and marking the 106th anniversary of regaining its independence after more than a century of partitions.
"It is a fantasy... that Europe is able to ensure its own security today," he said during a speech on Pilsudskiego Square in central Warsaw on Monday.
Duda argued that during the Cold War Soviet Russia "did not dare to attack the strong West, precisely because the West spent over 3 percent of GDP on its security in all NATO countries."
"Such was the hard policy implemented at that time and economically Soviet Russia was unable to cope with it," he continued.
According to Duda, today Russia also "will not be able to cope with a strong West, but it must be strong, strong with its own military potential, strong with its own economy and "strong with ironclad support from and cooperation with the United States." (PAP)
mr/at
