Poland and weapons of mass destruction
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Poland is not known or believed to possess
Chemical weapons
Poland ratified the
Biological weapons
Poland ratified the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) on 25 January 1973 and is not known to have conducted any activity prohibited by the BWC.
Nuclear weapons
Soviet nuclear warheads in Poland
Poland has possessed Soviet nuclear weapons. Formerly, Poland was part of the
From the early 1960s, nuclear weapons were stored on Soviet Armed Forces bases for their own use, in response to United States positioning nuclear weapons in Western Europe from the mid-1950s. In 1967 the Vistula Programme was agreed to build storage facilities so Soviet nuclear weapons could be made available to Polish forces in the event of war, mirroring the NATO nuclear sharing concept. Three storage site were completed late 1969, in forests near the villages of Brzeźnica-Kolonia, Podborsko and Templewo in western Poland. On 28 February 1970 an agreement was signed on the use of the sites, however the procedure for transferring nuclear warheads to Polish forces was never defined in detail, enabling the Soviet Union to interpret the agreement as it wished and they may have intended to never actually transfer any. In 1990 the agreement ceased to be in force following a year's notice period in the agreement, and the nuclear weapons were probably then removed from Poland.[4][5]
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
In the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, several Polish politicians proposed that Poland host nuclear weapons under the NATO nuclear sharing program. President Andrzej Duda has said the idea is under discussion. Jarosław Kaczyński, the leader of Poland's governing party has stated he would like Poland to acquire nuclear weapons itself, but acknowledged it was "unrealistic".[6]
References
- ^ "Treaties, States parties, and Commentaries - Poland". ihl-databases.icrc.org. Retrieved 2020-07-26.
- ^ Luczak 1996, pp. 19–21.
- ISBN 0-231-11308-0.
- ISSN 0023-5903. Retrieved 23 January 2019.
- ^ Blakemore, Erin (21 January 2019). "Archaeology reveals Cold War nuclear bunkers in Poland". National Geographic. Archived from the original on January 22, 2019. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
- ^ Tilles, Daniel (5 October 2022). "Poland has discussed hosting nuclear weapons with US, says president". Notes from Poland.
Bibliography
- Luczak, Wojciech (July 1996). "Poland's Atomic Adventure". ISSN 0306-5634.