POLISH ARMY
President Andrzej Duda spoke of the strong need to talk about the Polish security architecture and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s appropriate response on NATO’s eastern flank. He stressed that Russian troops stationed in Belarus are in close proximity to Warsaw.
“The Council of Ministers adopted a bill on the defence of the Homeland. It assumes an increase in defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP and an increase in the size of the Polish Army to 250 thousand soldiers on active service. The new law is to replace the 14 laws currently in force,” said Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.
NORD STREAM 2
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz put on ice the certification of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline designed to bring Russian gas to Germany after Russia formally recognised two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine.
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RUSSIA’S DECISIONS
Russia’s lower house of parliament voted to approve friendship treaties with the two self-proclaimed people’s republics in eastern Ukraine, escalating a crisis with Ukraine and the West. The treaties, which will enter into force once President Vladimir Putin signs them, could pave the way for Moscow to build military bases there, adopt a joint defence posture and bring about closer economic integration.
NO EU FUNDS TO POLAND
Warsaw must abide by the ruling of the European Union’s top court, the EU Commission said on Tuesday, as European affairs ministers prepared to quiz their Polish colleague Konrad Szymanski over the progress made in that regard. Speaking on the sidelines of a General Affairs Council in Brussels, Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders also pointed out that Poland had not yet paid the fines the European Court of Justice had ordered it to pay for maintaining the controversial disciplinary chamber for judges set up by the country’s conservative government.