In an interview with “Super Express,” Minister Zbigniew Bogucki said that Poland needs a much larger army than the currently planned 300,000 troops. In his view, the target strength of the armed forces should reach as many as half a million. He also emphasised that building powerful armed forces requires a strong and innovative economy.
Bogucki on a strong army
Zbigniew Bogucki, Minister and Head of the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland and a close associate of President Karol Nawrocki, made it clear that the existing plans to expand Poland’s armed forces to 300,000 soldiers are insufficient. In an interview with “Super Express,” he said:
“Ultimately, we can most likely have half a million soldiers. That will probably be the need, given how, unfortunately, the situation is developing rapidly and badly when it comes to Russia.”
Bogucki stressed that building a strong army must go hand in hand with economic development:
“We really have to think this issue through today, because security is absolutely fundamental. Defence spending is becoming a major necessity and a top priority, because if we don’t understand that, in some time we may wake up in a really very unfavourable reality, and none of us would want that. This is a matter of tightening the tax system; it’s a matter of developing new technologies. It’s a system of communicating vessels. To build a strong army, you need a strong economy. And for that economy to be strong, it has to be innovative.”
President Karol Nawrocki has prioritised security from the start of his presidency, a focus that has become even more pressing after the drone attacks.