Poland mulls enshrining defence spending, plans army training for all men

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WARSAW (Reuters) – Poland’s President Andrzej Duda proposed enshrining defence spending of at least 4% of GDP in the constitution on Friday, while the government backed giving military training to all adult males as Warsaw readies itself for threats from Moscow.

Galvanised by Russia’s invasion of neighbouring Ukraine three years ago, Poland now spends a higher proportion of GDP on defence than any other NATO member, including the United States.

Last year Poland’s defence spending reached 4.1% of GDP, according to NATO estimates, and it plans to hit 4.7% this year.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk later said in parliament that spending 5% on defence seems “a necessity”, but that Poles have “a lot of effort ahead of us.”

He added that the government wanted to put in place a system for training all adult males for the event of a war. The scheme would be open to women volunteers too.

“We will try to have a model ready by the end of this year so that every adult male in Poland is trained in the event of war so that this reserve is truly … adequate to potential threats,” Tusk told the chamber.

Talking to reporters later, Tusk cited the Swiss model as an example and added it would not be “mandatory, but there would be incentives that make men decide to undergo annual training and it is not just symbolic, not fake.”

Every Swiss man is obliged to serve in the military or an alternative civilian service. Swiss women can serve on a voluntary basis.

Tusk also said he supported Poland withdrawing from international conventions that ban the use of anti-personnel landmines and cluster munitions.

Though Duda and Tusk are political opponents, there is broad consensus in Poland on boosting defence. Changing the constitution requires a qualified majority in both houses of parliament.

On Thursday, Duda said during a joint press conference in Brussels with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte that all NATO countries should raise defence spending to at least 3% of GDP immediately.

(Reporting by Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk, Pawel Florkiewicz; Editing by Alan Charlish, Gareth Jones and Louise Heavens)