During their meeting at the White House, Presidents Joe Biden and Andrzej Duda of Poland discussed bolstering defense expenditures for Kyiv and showing solidarity among political opponents in protecting Ukraine. Duda and Tusk are attempting to persuade Congress and Biden to take action to prevent Ukraine from further retreating to Russia. By standing together in solidarity in such a united front, they aim to convince their fellow Washington partisans to join forces in protecting democracies across Europe.
Duda urged all NATO nations to raise defense expenditures to 3% of GDP in an opinion piece published in the Washington Post. Biden lauded Poland for its defense expenditures, which are roughly 4% of GDP—double the NATO standard that many member nations still haven’t achieved. He stressed how critical it is for Congress to authorize more military aid to Ukraine.
Speaker Mike Johnson, with whom Duda spoke, has not yet introduced the $60 billion extra aid package for Ukraine. According to Tusk, inaction may result in “thousands of lives in Ukraine.” He hoped Johnson would see the light.
The leaders had no choice but to hide their severe political differences in preparation for the visit, which Washington initiated.
Before the conference, Poland will be presented with a $2 billion military finance loan and the option to acquire 96 Apache helicopters from the United States. Warsaw, which became an essential hub for supplying weaponry to Ukraine under Duda and Tusk’s leadership, is distraught that the United States would disapprove of the supplementary, a worry shared throughout Europe.
With the supplementary, Ukraine could maintain its positions until early 2025 and hit important Russian strongholds in Crimea and the Black Sea, according to CIA Director Bill Burns, who told senators on Monday. The United States would have made a vast and historic error if it had not had it since Russia would have seized many more strategic cities and land.
On Tuesday, the White House is expected to unveil a fresh $300 million package for Ukraine, which is said to contain several Anti-Personnel/Anti-Material missiles. Poland’s foreign minister, Radek Sikorski, echoed Duda in calling for more defense spending.
