Polish Leader to Press for Surge in NATO Spending to Counter Russia

The president of Poland plans to use a White House meeting with President Biden on Tuesday to propose that most NATO countries increase their military spending by at least half to meet what he sees as the growing threat of Russian aggression against Europe and the United States.

The Polish president, Andrzej Duda, said that the Russian invasion of Ukraine had made clear that NATO must take more seriously the possibility that Moscow would move against one or more members of the alliance. To prepare for that, he said, each NATO country should spend at least 3 percent of its own economy on military needs, up from a current goal of 2 percent.

“A return to the status quo ante is not possible,” Mr. Duda wrote in The Washington Post before the meeting at the White House on Tuesday. “Russia’s imperialistic ambitions and aggressive revisionism are pushing Moscow toward a direct confrontation with NATO, with the West and, ultimately, with the whole free world.” He noted that Russia had “switched its economy to war mode,” devoting nearly 30 percent of its budget to arms. “Vladimir Putin’s regime poses the biggest threat to global peace since the end of the Cold War.”

The proposal to increase NATO military spending may not be adopted anytime soon by many allies that have yet to meet even the 2 percent target. But it reflects the tension within the alliance between its easternmost members, which feel most acutely vulnerable to Russian revanchism, and westernmost members, which are less alarmed and more eager to find a diplomatic resolution to the Ukraine war.

Mr. Biden will meet with Mr. Duda and Prime Minister Donald Tusk of Poland to mark the 25th anniversary of the accession to NATO of Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic while highlighting the need to do more to help Ukraine fend off Russian invaders. Legislation to provide an additional $60 billion in security aid to Ukraine has been blocked for now in Congress despite strong bipartisan support.

The president presumably will use the meeting to reinforce his commitment to NATO at a time when his rival in the fall election, former President Donald J. Trump, has threatened to rupture the alliance. Mr. Trump recently said that while president he told a NATO leader that not only would he not come to the defense of allies that failed to spend enough, but he would “encourage” Russia to attack them.