Poland should take Trump’s NATO exit remarks seriously, FM says
US President Donald Trump's recent declaration that the US is strongly considering leaving NATO should be treated as a serious possibility, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski has said.
In an interview with the British newspaper The Telegraph, published on Wednesday, US President Donald Trump said he was strongly considering pulling the United States out of Nato after it failed to join his war on Iran.
Trump also labelled the alliance a "paper tiger" and said removing America from the defence treaty was now "beyond reconsideration".
Speaking to the private television TVN24 on Thursday, Sikorski said such statements should be treated "as a possibility and taken seriously."
"Particularly here in Poland, on the eastern flank [of NATO], and by all political forces," he said.
"When I said in my policy speech in the Sejm [the lower house of Polish parliament] just a few weeks ago that Poland needs two insurance policies rather than putting all its eggs in one basket, some people were surprised," Sikorski continued, referring to European plans to boost its defence capabilities as an additional security guarantee for Poland.
"Today it turns out that we need to consider alternatives," he added.
Sikorski said that "of course NATO is the cornerstone of our security; of course we want to be a good, loyal ally of the United States, but we cannot pretend that the US president is not saying what he is saying."
"It always begins with a word, and then sometimes the word becomes flesh. It is reassuring that President Trump also announced a merger with Canada and Greenland, and so far that has not happened," he said. (PAP)
jd/jch
