Poland’s leader says his country is ready to host NATO members’ nuclear weapons to counter

WARSAW, Poland — Poland’s president says the NATO member would be ready to host the nuclear weapons of the military alliances’s other members in response to Russia’s moving its nuclear weapons to neighboring Belarus.

President Andrzej Duda made the comments in an interview published Monday in the Fakt tabloid.

Russia is “recently relocating its nuclear weapons to Belarus,” Duda said, in a reference to Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko’s announcement in December.

“If there were a decision by our allies to deploy nuclear weapons within the nuclear sharing also on our territory in order to strengthen the security of NATO’s eastern flank, we are ready,” Duda said.

He said Poland is aware of its obligations within the 32-member alliance that includes the United States.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who shares Duda’s views on national security, later told journalists that he needs to discuss this suggestion with him urgently. Duda has previously spoken of Poland’s openness to nuclear sharing within NATO.

Under NATO nuclear weapons sharing, the U.S. has provided nuclear weapons for Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey to deploy and store.

In Moscow, a Kremlin spokesman said any deployment of U.S. nuclear weapons in Poland would be met with steps necessary for Russia’s security.

“The military will, of course, analyze the situation if such plans are implemented, and in any case will do everything necessary, (will take) all the necessary retaliatory steps to guarantee our safety,” Dmitry Peskov said during a daily news conference.

Poland is a staunch supporter of neighboring Ukraine as it fends off Russia’s full-scale invasion, now in its third year.