The Trump-Nawrocki Deterrence Partnership

Poland’s new President, Karol Nawrocki, is meeting at the White House with President Donald Trump next week. Poland has extremely tense borders with Russia and Ukraine. The NATO ally gave Ukraine 40% of its military equipment at the beginning of the 2022 Russian invasion. It is now backfilling and modernizing its military at a rapid rate. Poland is already spending 4.7% of its GDP on its defense build-up and will likely be the first NATO member to reach the new alliance goal of 5% of GDP for defense. Poland has purchased a huge amount of modern American military equipment to deter further Russian aggression into Eastern Europe. That includes high-end Apache helicopters, F-35 jet fighters, and Patriot anti-air and anti-missile defenses. The Russians would have a hard time tangling with Poland even if she was not a NATO ally. 

President Trump’s dramatic effort to jump-start America’s industrial sector figures prominently in his meeting on September 3^rd with President Nawrocki. American tanks are built in the heart of Trump country in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. President Trump should urge the Polish leader to purchase more Abrams tanks. The Polish Army should be eager to be interoperable (side-by-side) with the American Army on the battlefield. Poland has already opened an Abrams tank repair facility in Poland. If Poland purchases additional Abrams tanks this year, it will get the fastest delivery possible and at the same price as previous purchases. Delay will result in longer delivery schedules and a significant increase in cost.  

President Trump should also offer the Poles what they desperately need: Relief from the regulatory burdens of “ITAR”, the regulations that drag out foreign military sales (FMS) over security concerns that are often too strict when a friend like Poland is nose-to-nose with the Russians. President Trump has an executive order that proposes such regulatory relief for strong allies.

This Trump-Nawrocki meeting promises to be a fascinating and potentially historic event in the Oval Office, 86 years after Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany divided up Poland at the beginning of World War II and 36 years after Poland liberated itself from the Soviet Empire. The U.S./Poland military partnership will be the key to credible NATO deterrence going forward.

Merrick Carey is CEO and founder of the Lexington Institute, a public policy think tank established in 1998 and based in Arlington, Virginia.