After Viktor Orbán and David Cameron, Donald Trump has now also met with Poland's President Andrzej Duda. Among other things, it was about aid to Ukraine.
New York City - It was the latest in a series of meetings between the ex-president and foreign heads of state as Europe prepares for a potential second term in office for Donald Trump: The Republican presidential candidate met with Polish President Andrzej Duda in New York on Wednesday , reports the
Associated Press
(AP),
among others .
Trump received Duda at his Trump Tower apartment, where he is staying during his New York hush money trial, according to a Trump campaign report. Upon his arrival, Trump praised the Polish president, saying: “He's done a fantastic job and he's my friend. We had four great years together." Trump also emphasized: “We are fully behind Poland.”
Trump had previously met with Hungarian President Viktor Orbán and British Foreign Minister David Cameron in recent weeks. As the
New York Times
reported, among others
, he also had a conversation with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman.
Duda and Trump are apparently talking about war in Israel and Ukraine
According to a report from the Trump campaign, the meeting between the US presidential candidate and the Polish president lasted a total of around two and a half hours. Accordingly, the two are said to have discussed the Ukraine war and Israel's war against Hamas, as well as Duda's push to increase NATO members' defense spending, according to the Trump campaign's statement
emerges.
Duda, who has long expressed his admiration for Trump, is also a strong supporter of Ukraine on issues related to the war raging there. The Polish President has encouraged Washington several times to provide more aid to Kiev in view of the ongoing Russian invasion. And it is precisely this aid that Trump's allies in the US Congress had been blocking for months.
Duda at Trump: Poland's president previously called for NATO countries to spend more on defense
During their conversation, Trump and Duda are also said to have discussed the Polish president's proposal to increase NATO countries' defense spending to 3 percent of their gross domestic product, according to the statement from Trump's campaign. Currently, the minimum defense spending target among NATO countries is 2 percent of GDP.
Trump may welcome this idea from the Polish president, after all, he has pushed his “America First” foreign policy for many weeks by questioning why the US is providing so much aid to Ukraine compared to European countries. At the same time, Trump called on European states to provide most of the aid to Kiev.
The former US president and current presidential candidate also raised fears among NATO member states in February (February 12, 2024) about his commitment to the alliance with regard to Trump's potential second term in office. Trump made headlines with comments at a rally in February in which he suggested that he would do nothing to protect a NATO ally if it had previously "not spent enough money on its defense."
Duda has also visited US President Biden in the White House several times this year
Poland has been a NATO member since 1999 and is connected to Ukraine by a 526 kilometer long border. And that is precisely what puts the country in a potentially precarious position, especially since the United States and its allies have repeatedly warned that if Russia takes Ukraine, it could try to invade Poland or another neighboring country, triggering a larger global war to trigger.
President Duda was already a guest at the White House in February of this year, where he celebrated the 25th anniversary of Poland's accession to NATO together with US President Biden. In addition, in March he met Joe Biden again in the White House for talks with his domestic political opponent, Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk. The fact that Biden met President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Donald Tusk in the White House is considered a symbolic gesture. Usually the president receives either the head of government or the president of another country, and not both together.
At the time, both sides emphasized their historically strong relationships. President Biden also quoted a statement that then Secretary of State Madeleine Albright made about Poland and other Central and Eastern European countries joining the EU 25 years ago: “If we stand together, no power in the world is stronger.”
(fh)