Military power of Poland & NATO

Poland is a country located in Central Europe with an area of 312,679 km² (land boundries: 2,865 km and costline 440 km). The capital of Poland is Warsaw. The number of inhabitants is 38,268,000.

Poland joined NATO in 1999 and hosts US-led multi-national NATO ground force battlegroup since 2007. The inventory of the Polish Armed Forces consists of a mix of Soviet-era and more modern Western weapons systems. Poland announced in March 2022 plans to increase the size of its armed forces to 300,000 personnel and to allocate at least 3% of GDP to defense. Modernization plan would include such items as 5th generation combat aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, rocket artillery, helicopters, submarines and frigates.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (North Atlantic Alliance) is an intergovernmental military alliance which was signed in Washington on 4 April 1949. NATO is a system of collective security: its independent member states agree to defend each other against attacks by others countries. NATO's main headquarters are located in Brussels. The following twelve states signed the treaty and became the founding members: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, United Kingdom and United States. The following states joined the treaty after 1949: Greece, Germany, Turkey and Spain. Members who joined after the dissolution of the Soviet Union: Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Albania, Croatia, Montenegro and North Macedonia.

Before and during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, several NATO countries sent army to reinforce the alliance's eastern flank. Alliance had deployed 40,000 troops along its 2,500 kilometres long Eastern flank to deter possible Russian aggression. On 5 July the North Atlantic Alliance members signed off on the accession protocols for Sweden and Finland and formally approved the decisions of the NATO summit.

Finland joined the alliance on 4 April 2023.