(MENAFN) The United States will not provide nuclear weapons to Poland or any other NATO member country in Eastern Europe, State Department Deputy Spokesman Vedant Patel said reporters on Thursday.
Patel was reacting to a request by Poland's President, Andrzej Duda, who called for Warsaw to join Washington's "nuclear sharing" system. The Polish president also stated that Warsaw addressed the topic with Washington and that the prospect "remains open."
The US “has no plans to deploy nuclear weapons” to any nation that “has joined NATO post-1997,” he stated. The spokesman called Warsaw “an important NATO ally in the region” but added that he is not aware of this particular issue “being raised” in discussions between the two allies.
As part of the nuclear sharing program, the United States now has nuclear weapons stationed in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Turkey. The five NATO nations just host the nukes, which are still owned by Washington.
The conversation came amid Western nations' fears over Russia's potential deployment of nuclear weapons in its long-running war with Ukraine. Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that if Russia's territorial integrity was threatened, Moscow would "employ all means" to protect itself. Some in the West saw his statements as an alleged threat to use nuclear weapons in the current fight.
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