WARSAW: Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Friday that his government is working on a plan to prepare large-scale military training for every adult male in response to the changing security situation in Europe.
The military training would create a reserve force that is “adequate to possible threats,” Tusk said in a major speech on security to Poland’s lower house of parliament, or Sejm.
He said that there’s a need for an army of 500,000 soldiers, which would include reservists.
Last year, the Polish government said that the military was made up of around 200,000 soldiers and was to grow to 220,000 this year with the objective of increasing it to about 300,000.
But security fears have grown far more dramatic in recent weeks, as Russia continues to pound Ukraine with missiles and drones, and as the Trump administration has withdrawn military and intelligence support for Ukraine while putting its commitments to NATO in question.
“Today we are talking about the need for a half-million army in Poland,” Tusk said.
After his speech, Tusk explained to reporters that he wasn’t considering a return of universal military service, but rather a reserve system based on the model in Switzerland. In that country, every man is obliged to serve in the military or an alternative civilian service, while women can volunteer if they choose.
Poland, with a population of 38 million people, is located along NATO’s eastern flank and is deeply concerned by the war in Ukraine. There are fears that if Ukraine is defeated, Russia will turn its imperial ambitions next to countries like Poland, which Moscow controlled during the 19th century and during the Cold War.
Jaroslaw Kaczyński, the head of Poland’s largest opposition party, the conservative Law and Justice, said that a mental shift in society would also be needed in addition to the military training of men.
“We will have a return to the chivalric ethos and to the fact that men should also be soldiers, that is, be able to expose themselves, even to death,” Kaczyński said.
Concern has grown in Poland and across most of Europe as US President Donald Trump has signaled a dramatically shifting stance in Washington to one that includes support for Russia’s position — even though on Friday he issued a stern warning to Russia after it attacked Ukrainian energy facilities with dozens of missiles and drones.
“If Ukraine loses the war or if it accepts the terms of peace, armistice, or capitulation in such a way that weakens its sovereignty and makes it easier for (Russian President Vladimir) Putin to gain control over Ukraine, then, without a doubt — and we can all agree on that — Poland will find itself in a much more difficult geopolitical situation,” Tusk said.
President Andrzej Duda said Friday that he was submitting an amendment to the Polish Constitution for consideration which would oblige the country to spend at least 4 percent of its gross domestic product each year on defense.
Poland is already NATO’s top spender on defense as a percentage of its overall economy, spending above 4 percent of its GDP this year. But Duda said that he wanted to take advantage of the consensus on the political scene in Poland today on the matter to enshrine it in the highest law.
Trump has suggested that the US might abandon its commitments to the alliance if member countries don’t meet defense spending targets.
Polish leader Tusk plans large-scale military training for all adult males to boost reserves
https://arab.news/nq63r
Polish leader Tusk plans large-scale military training for all adult males to boost reserves
- The military training would create a reserve force that is “adequate to possible threats,” Tusk said
- “Today we are talking about the need for a half-million army in Poland”
Afghanistan says it thwarted Pakistani airstrike on Bagram Air Base as fighting enters fourth day
- The fighting has been the most severe between the neighbors for years
- Pakistan accuses Taliban government of harboring militant groups that stage attacks against it
KABUL: Afghanistan thwarted attempted airstrikes on Bagram Air Base, the former US military base north of Kabul, authorities said Sunday, while cross-border fighting between Pakistan and Afghanistan stretched into a fourth day.
The fighting has been the most severe between the neighbors for years, with Pakistan declaring that it’s in “open war” with Afghanistan.
The conflict has alarmed the international community, particularly as the area is one where other militant organizations, including Al-Qaeda and the Daesh group, still have a presence and have been trying to resurface.
Pakistan accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban government of harboring militant groups that stage attacks against it and also of allying with its archrival India.
Border clashes in October killed dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants until a Qatari-mediated ceasefire ended the intense fighting. But several rounds of peace talks in Turkiye in November failed to produce a lasting agreement, and the two sides have occasionally traded fire since then.
On Sunday, the police headquarters of Parwan province, where Bagram is located, said in a statement that several Pakistani military jets had entered Afghan airspace “and attempted to bomb Bagram Air Base” at around 5 a.m.
The statement said Afghan forces responded with “anti-aircraft and missile defense systems” and had managed to thwart the attack.
There was no immediate response from Pakistan’s military or government regarding Kabul’s claim of attempted airstrikes on Bagram or the ongoing fighting.
Bagram was the United States’ largest military base in Afghanistan. It was taken over by the Taliban as they swept across the country and took control in the wake of the chaotic US withdrawal from the country in 2021. Last year, US President Donald Trump suggested he wanted to reestablish a US presence at the base.
The current fighting began when Afghanistan launched a broad cross-border attack on Thursday night, saying it was in retaliation for Pakistani airstrikes the previous Sunday.
Pakistan had said its airstrike had targeted the outlawed Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP. Afghanistan had said only civilians were killed.
The TTP militant group, which is separate but closely allied with Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban, operates inside Pakistan, where it has been blamed for hundreds of deaths in bombings and other attacks over the years.
Pakistan accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban government of providing a safe haven within Afghanistan for the TTP, an accusation that Afghanistan denies.
After Thursday’s Afghan attack, Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif declared that “our patience has now run out. Now it is open war between us.”
In the ongoing fighting, each side claims to have killed hundreds of the other side’s forces — and both governments put their own casualties at drastically lower numbers.
Two Pakistani security officials said that Pakistani ground forces were still in control on Sunday of a key Afghan post and a 32-square-kilometer area in the southern Zhob sector near Kandahar province, after having seized it during fighting Friday. The captured post and surrounding area remain under Pakistani control, they added. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity, because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly.
In Kabul, the Afghan government rejected Pakistan’s claims. Deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat called the reports “baseless.”
Afghan officials said that fighting had continued overnight and into Sunday in the border areas.
The police command spokesman for Nangarhar province, Said Tayyeb Hammad, said that anti-aircraft missiles were used from the provincial capital, Jalalabad, and surrounding areas on Pakistani fighter jets flying overhead Sunday morning.
Defense Ministry spokesman Enayatulah Khowarazmi said that Afghan forces had launched counterattacks with snipers across the border from Nangarhar, Paktia, Khost and Kandahar provinces overnight. He said that two Pakistani drones had been shot down and dozens of Pakistani soldiers had been killed.
Fitrat said that Pakistani drone attacks hit civilian homes in Nangarhar province late Saturday, killing a woman and a child, while mortar fire killed another civilian when it hit a home in Paktia province.
There was no immediate response to the claims from Pakistani officials.
