Poland vows to lift defense spending to 4.8% of GDP amid rising threat from Russia

AFP and Global Watch | 2025-09-08

Poland will increase its defense spending next year to 4.8% of GDP.

The budget proposal came as NATO said all its members were set this year to hit the alliance's previous defense spending target of two percent of GDP.

Poland has been a key alliance member on its eastern flank as neighboring Ukraine battles Russia's invasion launched in 2022.

"We are committing the record amount of 200 billion zlotys ($55 billion) to defense" in 2026, representing "over 4.8% of GDP," Finance Minister Andrzej Domanski told journalists on August 28 after a cabinet meeting.

Fearing a Russian threat, Poland has embarked on a swift modernization of its armed forces, spending billions on weapons, sourced in particular from the United States and South Korea.

In June, the 32-nation NATO agreed to massively boost defense spending over the next decade.

Compulsory military service

The commitment to spend 5% of their GDPs on security-related spending breaks down as 3.5% on core defense spending and 1.5 percent on a looser range of areas such as infrastructure and cyber security.

The new target replaces the alliance's former military spending goal of two percent, first set back in 2014.

In February, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk unveiled the country's 2025 Economic Plan with more than 650 billion PLN ($171 billion) in investments. Forecasts suggest investments could reach 700 billion PLN ($184 billion) -- an all-time high.

The investments aim not only to revive economic growth in the country but also to bolster defensive capacity.

Poland plans to devote some funds to strengthen the eastern border with Belarus and to build road and rail infrastructure, as Poland is a critical link for supplying Western arms to Ukraine.

Poland also is preparing to increase its volunteer army reserves and is expanding its volunteer military training program, which it wants to handle 100,000 participants per year by 2027.

Although Poland ended the draft in 2008, Maj. Gen. Maciej Klisz, the operational commander of Polish armed forces, in March said compulsory military service will likely return in Poland because it will not have enough reservists.

He cited the experience of Finland, with about 5.5 million inhabitants and almost 1 million military reservists.

With a population of 37 million, to match that proportion, Poland "[needs] 7 million reservists," said Klisz on Polish news channel TVN24 on March 28.