WARSAW — Poland and Lithuania confirmed on Wednesday they are participating in classified discussions about expanding their roles in NATO’s U.S.-led nuclear deterrence program as Russia pursues its war in Ukraine. The talks center on potential contributions to the alliance’s nuclear sharing framework, which is built around American nuclear weapons stationed in Europe.
“We are talking, in order to create better conditions for nuclear deterrence and for Poland to play an important role in that,” Polish Deputy Defense Minister Paweł Zalewski told Polish Radio on Wednesday. Zalewski added that hosting nuclear weapons would be “an extremely serious matter, which is serious in terms of political consequences.” He emphasized that Poland has denied any current plans to host such weapons.
Lithuanian Defense Minister Robertas Kaunas confirmed his country’s involvement in the classified talks. “Discussions are indeed taking place. I do not want to go into details at this point as they are classified, but discussions are ongoing, and Lithuania is certainly not standing on the sidelines,” Kaunas said Tuesday, according to press agency BNS.
The United States has stationed nuclear weapons in several European countries for decades as part of its security guarantees to NATO allies. The current NATO nuclear sharing program includes U.S. weapons deployed in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey, and Britain, with dual-capable aircraft operated by both the U.S. and its allies. The U.S. maintains full control over those weapons.
Anonymous sources cited by the Financial Times said the United States had signaled openness to deploying elements of its nuclear arsenal in new European countries beyond the current six. The report also noted that Poland and the Baltic states—Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania—were interested in potentially hosting bases for U.S. dual-capable aircraft, which can carry either conventional or nuclear warheads.
Artur Kacprzyk, a nuclear deterrence analyst with the Polish Institute of International Affairs in Warsaw, described a possible compromise model. “There might be a middle ground there, which could be called ‘nuclear sharing light’. You would have, for example, Polish planes, certified for carrying U.S. nuclear weapons, but the weapons won’t be deployed in Poland. This aircraft from the east could be a sort of backup if, let’s say, German or Dutch aircraft are destroyed before they can use those nuclear weapons,” he said.
Russia’s war against Ukraine and the broader threat Moscow poses to NATO have prompted discussions about expanding U.S. nuclear cooperation with Europe. Poland has expressed interest in participating in the U.S. nuclear deterrence program since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.