Polish and UK Finance Ministers Discuss Defence Spending
(Reuters) -Poland is discussing ways of working together with Britain and European nations to boost defence production while getting better value for taxpayers, Finance Minister Andrzej Domanski told the Financial Times in an interview on Thursday.
Domanski said "new tools" for defence spending figured in his talks with British Finance Minister Rachel Reeves in London on Wednesday, but stopped short of saying if they discussed Ukraine.
"I have a very strong feeling that the Polish and UK thinking about defence is very similar," Domański said, adding that defence funding was his top priority when meeting fellow EU finance ministers and his British counterpart.
Poland had invited Reeves for talks at a meeting of European finance ministers in Warsaw next month alongside Norway's finance minister, Jens Stoltenberg, he added.
Downing Street and Poland's finance ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Ahead of Thursday's EU summit in Brussels, European Union leaders will commit to do more to make the bloc more competitive, with more military muscle in the face of U.S. tariffs and other economic challenges, and doubts over Washington's future backing in defence.
Galvanised by Russia's invasion of neighbouring Ukraine three years ago, Poland now spends a higher proportion of its gross domestic product (GDP) on defence than any other member of NATO, including the United States.
Poland's defence spending accounted for 4.1% of GDP last year, NATO estimates, and it plans to hit 4.7% this year.
($1=0.9179 euros)
(Reporting by Gnaneshwar Rajan in Bengaluru; Editing by Tom Hogue and Clarence Fernandez)
