Europe needs to be armed to 'survive,' Polish PM tells EU

Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk urged fellow EU countries on Wednesday to significantly boost defense spending towards targets laid out by U.S. President Donald Trump, saying the bloc's survival depended on it.

Addressing the European parliament, Tusk, whose government took up the EU's rotating presidency this month, called for action in the face of an aggressive Russia.

"This is a time when Europe cannot afford to save on security," Tusk told European lawmakers in Strasbourg. "If Europe is to survive, it needs to be armed."

Russia's war in Ukraine has jolted NATO to strengthen its eastern flank and ramp up investments on defence.

Trump has demanded alliance members increase such expenditure to five percent of GDP, more than double the current minimum of two percent.

Last year 23 of NATO's 32 member countries were on course to hit the two-percent threshold ― with Poland leading the pack on 4.12 percent.

Trump's request has been met with scepticism in some European quarters, with some diplomats seeing it as an opening salvo in the volatile billionaire's new push to pressure Washington's allies to do more.

But Tusk urged EU members to take security in their own hands.

"Don't ask America what it can do for our security. Ask yourselves what we can do for our own security," he said, paraphrasing late U.S. president John F. Kennedy.

The only NATO member to share a border with both Russia and Ukraine, Poland sees itself on the front line of Moscow's attempts to destabilise the West and has placed security at the top of the EU's agenda. (AFP)