Washington, D.C. – U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski in Washington on Friday to discuss “fair and reciprocal market access” and the urgent need for NATO Allies to increase their defense investment.
“We also discussed the Russia-Ukraine war and the need for all NATO Allies to increase their defense investment without delay,” Rubio said on social media platform X after the meeting. He emphasized the importance of reciprocity in market access as another key topic raised during their discussions.
When asked whether he understood Washington’s negotiating tactics regarding Ukraine, Sikorski said that was a question for the U.S. side but noted that he “got the impression that the United States was committed to lasting peace.” He declined to comment on what Rubio had told him about talks with Russia in Saudi Arabia.
U.S. President Donald Trump has been actively pushing for a deal to end the war in Ukraine. Last week, he held separate calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Trump’s top officials, including Rubio, met their Russian counterparts in Saudi Arabia this week for talks that did not include Ukraine. During this time, Trump also called Zelenskiy a dictator.
Trump has urged the presidents of Russia and Ukraine to work together to end the war, which began when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and annexed Crimea in 2014. He has demanded that NATO countries raise their defense spending. Despite nearly doubling their defense expenditure since Russia’s annexation of Crimea, European nations on average still spend below NATO’s 2% of GDP guidelines.
Poland leads NATO members in defense spending as a proportion of its GDP, with a NATO-estimated 4.1% in 2024. However, eight of the military and political alliance’s 32 members spend less than 2%. Trump has threatened not to protect allies who fail to meet the defense spending target.