Polish General Roman Polko, the former commander of GROM, said he rejects the concept of a common European army during an interview on Radio Zet.
Polko emphasized in the interview that European countries should do nothing to counter NATO.
The presenter asked, among other things, whether European countries should create a common European army, preferably together with Ukraine, as the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has proposed.
“I understand President Zelensky, he would probably like to implement it this way, but I don’t see such an option. Europe needs to integrate strongly into the NATO alliance, which is simply a proven pact,” said the former military official. “But Europe has shirked such obligations, and now it no longer shirks them.”
In his opinion, Europe could integrate with Ukraine in the future, which currently has the strongest army in Europe, but not in such a way as to build an alternative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Polko agreed with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, who strongly rejected the idea of creating a common European army, arguing that it would be a gift for Putin. The Dutchman advised supporters of a common European army to “keep dreaming.”
“I repeat, you cannot do anything against NATO. What is our strength and what Putin fears most is the cohesion and solidarity of the NATO alliance,” Polko said.
“We really need to strengthen this European leg of NATO, and we need to do everything to ensure that the transatlantic relations that exist, as well as relations with the American military, are as good as possible. This is the strongest army in the world. This is the basis of our security and deterrent potential,” Polko stated.
The same opinion was expressed by General Bogusław Samol, who a year ago stated how small the armed forces of European countries are compared to those of the United States.
