Poland's president vows to spend 4.7% of GDP on defence this year

Poland already spends more of its GDP on defence than any other NATO country, followed by Estonia and the US.

Transcript

00:00Poland's defense spending will reach 4.7 percent of its GDP this year, the country's president

00:07announced on Wednesday.

00:09Andrzej Duda said the budget is expected to reach 30 billion euro, making it the largest

00:15defense budget among NATO countries.

00:18He also said that Poland will be strengthening its defense alliance with the United States.

00:24I would also like to emphasize the importance of our alliance, of our close relations with

00:29our main ally, the United States.

00:32We recently officially opened a base in Redzików, an anti-missile base.

00:40This is a very tough American investment in the security of our territory.

00:47I am very happy about it.

00:49I hope that we will have more American investments on our eastern flank.

00:56Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has publicly agreed that spending needs to be increased

01:00across the alliance, and has called for his fellow EU members to protect Europe's eastern

01:05flank against Russian aggression.

01:09During the election campaign, Donald Trump notoriously said he would encourage Russia

01:14to, quote, do whatever the hell they want to allies who don't spend at least the required

01:192 percent of their GDP on defense.