Warsaw, Poland — Poland and Lithuania confirm they are participating in discussions about their potential role in NATO’s nuclear deterrence efforts, centered around US nuclear weapons in Europe.
While the talks are still in their early stages, expanding the US nuclear deterrent in Europe could reassure continental allies of continued US military support at a time of President Donald Trump’s leadership. An attempt to limit his country’s participation in conventional defense In Europe.
“We are talking in order to create better conditions for nuclear deterrence and for Poland to play an important role in this,” Polish Deputy Defense Minister Pawel Zalewski told Polish Radio on Wednesday.
But Poland has denied any plans to host nuclear weapons. He added that this would be “a very dangerous matter and dangerous in terms of political consequences.”
“Discussions are already taking place. I don’t want to go into details at this stage because they are confidential, but the discussions are continuing, and Lithuania is certainly not standing on the sidelines,” Lithuanian Defense Minister Robertas Kaunas said on Tuesday, according to news agency BNS.
The two ministers’ response came after anonymous sources reported by the Financial Times reported on Tuesday that the United States had expressed its openness to deploying elements of its nuclear arsenal in new European countries, in addition to the six countries currently believed to host nuclear weapons.
The Financial Times reported that Poland and the Baltic states Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, the NATO members closest to Ukraine, are interested in potentially hosting bases for US dual-capable aircraft, which can carry conventional or nuclear warheads.
The Pentagon declined to comment, but a Defense Department official said the United States and NATO “continuously assess the security environment” and work to maintain an effective deterrent. The official was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The United States has deployed nuclear weapons in several European countries for decades as part of its security guarantees for its NATO allies.
In recent years, Russia’s war against Ukraine and the broader threat Moscow poses to NATO have sparked discussions about the possibility of expanding US nuclear cooperation with Europe.
An official charged with communicating with NATO, but who was not authorized to reveal his name, told the Associated Press: “Work on assessing NATO’s nuclear deterrent posture and potentially adapting it has been ongoing for several years and is not linked to any decision taken by the United States to modify its traditional posture in Europe.”
NATO’s nuclear sharing program includes US nuclear weapons deployed in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey and Britain, as well as dual-capable aircraft owned by the US and its allies. The United States maintains full control of nuclear weapons.
Poland has expressed its willingness to participate in the US nuclear deterrent program since the start of Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and former President Andrzej Duda even welcomed hosting nuclear weapons. The current government led by Donald Tusk has been more cautious, only talking about a greater role in nuclear deterrence.
However, the United States has repeatedly indicated that placing nuclear weapons in NATO’s eastern countries would be too provocative for Russia, Artur Kacprzyk, a nuclear deterrence analyst at the Polish Institute of International Affairs in Warsaw, told the AP.
“There could be a compromise, which could be called ‘light nuclear sharing’. For example, you would have Polish aircraft certified to carry US nuclear weapons, but the weapons would not be deployed in Poland. This aircraft coming from the east could serve as a kind of support if, for example, German or Dutch aircraft were destroyed before they could use those nuclear weapons.”
Earlier this year, Poland said it would be one of several European countries to join France initiative To coordinate nuclear deterrence efforts with European allies. It was France The only nuclear power in the European Union Since Britain left the bloc in 2020.
Kacprzyk said that the cooperation initiated by France is “complementary” to American deterrence, but has a different nature.
Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway also expressed their interest in the French initiative, which allows the temporary deployment of French nuclear-armed aircraft in allied countries. It also allows partners to participate in French deterrence exercises and allows allied non-nuclear forces to participate in French nuclear activities.
Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kuciniak-Kamysz told Polish broadcaster TVP on Tuesday that nuclear deterrence will be discussed during a NATO meeting in Brussels on June 18. He said that the French initiative and the American program are part of those efforts.
Increased nuclear cooperation in Europe may help the United States offset conventional reductions, but it cannot completely replace the forward presence of conventional forces, especially in countries bordering Russia, Kacprzyk said.
“To say ‘I would risk nuclear war to defend an ally but I don’t want to send my soldiers into combat’ is a mixed signal,” he said. “You need coherent signals at all levels of deterrence.”
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McNeil reported from Brussels and Trobin from Washington. Sylvie Courbet in Paris contributed.