Kaczyński: we support our political rivals' efforts regarding defence

PiS chairman Jarosław Kaczyński gave a statement on Monday in which he said: "We would like to declare - and I say it on behalf of Law and Justice, (and) the whole United Right - that we treat the issue of defence as an element of a cross-party nature."

"We support all kinds of efforts, or even only declarations regarding the future, on the part of our political rivals when it comes to defence of borders and defence as such," he stressed.

Kaczyński specified he meant projects such as the planned strengthening of the Polish-Belarusian and Polish-Russian borders, announced by Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

"This is an idea or plan which functioned also when we were in power. ... We support it, we simply think that this is the right thing to do, that we should be strengthening our border," PiS chairman added.

Speaking alongside Kaczyński, former defence minister and current chief of PiS parliamentary club, Mariusz Błaszczak, accused Donald Tusk's government of "spreading propaganda" over defence issues.

"If words are to be turned into actions, then we expect agreements negotiated when PiS was in power regarding bolstering the military potential of Armed Forces be signed in the coming days," he said.

Błaszczak added that said agreements include deals on 640 K2 tanks, 212 K9 howitzers, Krab howitzers, 96 Apache attack helicopters and 486 HIMARS rocket systems.

In his view, all this military equipment is necessary to effectively deter potential aggressors, so that "Putin, rebuilding the Russian Empire, would not dare to attack Poland".

Poland will invest 10 billion zlotys ($2.55 billion) in a programme to secure its eastern border, PM Donald Tusk said on Saturday (May 18), in a bid to bolster its defences against what it says is a rising threat from Russia and Belarus.

Poland's border with Belarus has been a flashpoint since migrants started flocking there in 2021, after Minsk, a close Russian ally, opened travel agencies in the Middle East offering a new unofficial route into Europe - a move the European Union said was designed to create a crisis.

Since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, relations have become even tenser, with Warsaw ramping up defence spending and accusing Minsk and Moscow of attempts to destabilise Poland.

"We have decided to invest 10 billion zlotys in our security, and above all in a secure eastern border," Prime Minister Donald Tusk told a news conference.

"We are starting a major project to build a secure border, including a system of fortifications as well as landscaping and environmental decisions that will make this border impossible to pass for a potential enemy."

Tusk did not give further details of what kinds of fortifications would be built.

The previous government built a fence on the Polish-Belarusian border that was over 180 km long and 5.5 metres high, to protect against illegal migration. It is complemented by a system of cameras and sensors monitoring the frontier.

Tusk had announced plans to strengthen the eastern border earlier in May, but without giving details.

On Monday (May 20), Tusk announced he would present "an iron dome" initiative in a few days together with other European prime ministers.

"So that the idea of a pan-European air defence, the iron dome over Europe, becomes less of a dream but an ever more real and practical plan," Tusk said.

The European Sky Shield Initiative is a common air defence scheme set up by Germany in 2022 to boost European air defence. Tusk has compared it to Israel's Iron Dome system.