A Mighty Revival

Poland's Deputy Prime Minister Radoslaw Sikorski tells Newsweek how lessons from history helped his nation turn its fortunes around to become one of NATO's strongest members

- by TOM O'CONNOR

ALIGNED GOALS Sikorski agrees with Trump saying that Europe disarmed itself for too long, and believes that if NATO members up their defense spending, "Russia will be in no position to threaten us."

ONE DAY AFTER POLISH PRESIDENT KAROL Nawrocki held a high-profile meeting with President Donald Trump—marked by pledges of U.S. military presence and U.S. fighter jets piercing the skies over Washington, D.C.—the rising European nation’s deputy premier and top diplomat sat down with Newsweek for an exclusive interview covering the state of U.S.-Polish ties, Russia’s war in Ukraine and Europe’s rearmament, in which Warsaw is playing a leading role.

Poland, once at the helm of one of the largest European powers centuries ago, has a long history of being swallowed up, occupied and partitioned by neighboring rivals. The simultaneous invasions by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union at the beginning of World War II in 1939 nearly led to the erasure of Poland, which went on to survive after the conflict as a Soviet satellite state until transitioning to democracy in 1989 and joining NATO a decade later. Today, Poland’s outlook is unrecognizable from its past era of decline. The country now hosts the third-largest army in NATO—behind only the U.S. and Turkey—and spends the most on defense in terms of percentage of GDP, which also constitutes one of the fastest rising economies in Europe.

Speaking to Newsweek a week before his country said it had shot down Russian drones that had violated Poland’s airspace, Polish Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said the decision to invest so much of his nation’s newfound prosperity in defense was a choice rooted in painful lessons from history.

“In Poland, we have a saying,” Sikorski said. “Every country has an army. Either your own or a foreign one. And to our cost we have learned many times that your own is cheaper.”