President: NATO chief agree bloc's condition improved
After a meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in the Swiss resort of Davos on Thursday, President Andrzej Duda said that he and Stoltenberg agreed that NATO is now "in much better condition than it was just a few years ago."
"We have discussed the condition of NATO and we both concluded that it is much better now than it was just a few years ago. Today, NATO is an alliance that has demonstrated its vitality. The strong decisions that we made in Wales (Newport, 2014 - PAP), but first of all at the NATO summit in Warsaw (2016), completely changed the view of NATO in our contemporary times," Duda told Polish reporters in Davos, where he was taking part in the World Economic Forum.
By deploying its forces on the bloc's eastern flank, NATO demonstrated its ability to make decisions and take actions while also demonstrating that "it is constantly adapting to the changing security situation."
Duda also said he and Stoltenberg had discussed national defence spending, and said he was proud that by meeting NATO's 2 percent of GDP recommendation, Poland showed that it was serious about security and defence.
The two officials also discussed the Polish armed forces' involvement in NATO's international missions, including the possibility of increasing troop numbers in Iraq by sending "a training mission there (...), which means several soldiers and officers to train local troops," Duda said.
"It is an issue for discussion. I said I would discuss it with the minister of national defence, and of course with the prime minister. It is a suggestion from the secretary general," the Polish president told reporters.
Source: PAP