US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that he met in Washington yesterday with Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, and the two discussed "competitive and reciprocal market access" and "the need for NATO countries to immediately increase their defense investments", Reuters reported, BTA reported.
"We also discussed the Russian-Ukrainian war and the need for all NATO allies to increase their defense investments without delay", Rubio wrote on the "Ex" social platform, adding that another topic raised was reciprocity in market access.
Asked after the meeting whether he understood Washington's tactics in the negotiations regarding Ukraine, the Polish foreign minister said that this was a question for the American side, but he "was left with the impression that the United States is committed to achieving lasting peace".
Sikorski declined to comment on what Rubio told him about the negotiations with Russia in Saudi Arabia. US President Donald Trump has pushed for an agreement to end the war in Ukraine and held separate phone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Reuters reports.
Despite nearly doubling their defense spending since Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014, European NATO countries are spending less than the alliance's recommended 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense, on average.
Poland spends the most on its military among allies in the bloc, at 4.1 percent in 2024, while eight of the countries spend less than 2 percent, Reuters notes. Trump has threatened that the United States will not help defend NATO countries that do not invest enough in defense.