President at Davos: NATO in better shape - News - National Security Bureau

22.01.2019

President at Davos: NATO in better shape

NATO is in considerably better shape than several years ago, and in 2016 confirmed itself as a real defensive alliance which protects all its members, President Andrzej Duda said on Tuesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

"NATO is in far better shape than some years ago. In 2016 NATO showed that it is alive, that it is a real defensive alliance, i.e. an alliance that protects all its member states. It showed this through decisions taken firstly at the summit in Wales, but most of all later decisions which were made during the Warsaw summit," Duda said.

According to Duda NATO's military deployments on its eastern flank proved that it was "alive and responsive to the challenges which appear in the surrounding world." He added that he was not concerned about NATO's future, because it presented itself in "positive colours."

Speaking about US President Donald Trump's demands for the NATO states to raise defence spending to 2 percent GDP by 2024, Duda said he understood the American position and stressed that Poland was striving to comply.

Commenting rumours that Trump was considering pulling the US out of NATO, Duda called such claims "journalistic gossip" which should not be believed.

 

Source: PAP