France warns U.S. against placing nuclear weapons in Poland

A potential deployment of US nuclear weapons to Poland would breach key arms control accords between NATO and Russia, French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu warned on Thursday. Polish President Andrzej Duda said earlier this week that his country was willing to host such weapons if Washington supported the idea.

Under NATO’s nuclear sharing program the US maintains some of its weapons of mass destruction in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Türkiye.

In an interview with Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper, published on Wednesday, Lecornu pointed out that a hypothetical deployment of US nuclear weapons to Poland would first require thorough discussions between NATO member states, as it “would undermine the NATO-Russia founding act.”

The minister also noted that France, the sole nuclear power within the European Union, does not participate in NATO’s nuclear planning group. Lecornu explained that Paris is “completely autonomous in our planning and in our deterrence system.”