In brief
Poland's President Karol Nawrocki stated that Donald Trump is vital in stopping Vladimir Putin's aggression towards Europe. In an interview, he expressed the need for Europe to support Trump's efforts in addressing the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and highlighted the significance of NATO's solidarity in the face of increasing threats from Russia. Nawrocki criticized European leaders for focusing on ideological issues rather than enhancing defense and security, calling for a stronger military commitment from Europe.
Donald Trump is the only world leader capable of stopping Vladimir Putin from threatening Europe, according to Poland's President Karol Nawrocki.
In an interview with Radio 4's Today programme, he said the Russian leader was not to be trusted, but Europe needed to do everything it could to support President Trump in his efforts to end the war in Ukraine.
President Nawrocki was already well-known as a firm supporter of Donald Trump even before he landed in Britain for meetings with PM Sir Keir Starmer and others.
Now, he says that with Vladimir Putin's Russia threatening his country as well as central and eastern Europe, the US president was the only person who could, as he put it, solve this problem – as well as ending the war in Ukraine.
Referring to last September's mass incursion by Russian drones when more than 20 uncrewed aircraft crossed into Poland from Belarus and Ukraine, President Nawrocki called it an extraordinary situation, adding that until that time, no NATO member state had experienced a drone attack on that scale. Russia, he said, was testing Poland's defenses and testing NATO's solidarity.
The Polish president then thanked Britain for sending over RAF Typhoon jets to help defend his borders. He said Poland had been in a state of hybrid war with Russia since 2021, as it dealt with drones and disinformation.
This Russian grey zone activity showed we are living in dangerous times, he added.
He was asked about his friendship with Donald Trump, particularly in the light of the US president's threats to take over by any means the Danish autonomous territory of Greenland, something which has rattled Europe and threatens to rupture the 77-year old NATO alliance.
The US, he insisted, despite recent statements by US officials to the contrary, was still the guarantor of security in Europe. What Donald Trump was doing on behalf of the Europeans, he said, deserved support and great respect. President Nawrocki said he could see Europe detaching itself from the United States and said this was good neither for the economic security nor the military security of the European Union.
That still left the awkward question of Greenland. This discussion, he said, should remain a matter between the Danish prime minister and President Trump. Karol Nawrocki was convinced that this question would be resolved through NATO and through dialogue between Denmark and the US.
But President Nawrocki also used this interview to criticize European leaders for, as he put it, being involved in not so important things, in ideological issues such as green deal for instance, climate policy, migration issues. Europe, he said, was not building its resilience and security over the years, whereas Poland was now allocating close to 5% of its GDP to defense.
For Britain, though, he had some warm words. Relations between Poland and the UK were extremely important and today around one million Poles lived in the UK.
I would like to express my very deep appreciation for the British soldiers who are stationed in Poland... taking responsibility for NATO's Eastern flank, he said. He expressed his hope that, with Poland's economy growing rapidly, Britain as host of next year's G20 summit would invite Poland to participate.
