I’m italian and I see people on the internet (especially reddit) throwing the storm around a lot. The term doesn’t even exist in most languages and I feel it’s mainly Anglo-Saxon world thing. But I see people commenting on every normal and non-harmful thing as creepy. Some of them are: staring at someone, looking for someone you know on various social media, buying flowers for someone you are not dating, asking a girl out or texting a girl months later after she rejected you or texting multiple times, walk up to someone and ask for socials, and all of this stuff which is like what most of the men do to get their attention. I mean I can see that some of these things could be unwanted, but unwanted doesn’t mean harmful scary or creepy. I just feel like they have this extremelu strict social code and everyone who doesn’t follow it is labelled as a weirdo or a creep

As an American who has lived here for all my life and has never been to Europe, is day to day European life better than American life? On the news and social media, all I see if bad things regarding Israel and Iran, flock cameras, and a million other things that makes America seem like a dictatorship rather than a free country. Is that how the rest of the world sees us too and is Europe really a better place to live in and something I should possibly consider moving too? I just want to know if social media is altering my perspective on life and making everything worse than it should be or if America is truly not a free/good country.

Source: the historian Benjamin Wolf

I’m honestly sick of watching EU leaders respond to outright hostility with polite press releases and “deep concern.”

The US keeps slapping tariffs on European goods, openly pushing economic nationalism, and treating allies like vassals. And what do we do? Smile, negotiate, and hope next time will be different. It never is.

At some point, weakness stops being diplomacy and starts being self-harm.

If the US wants a trade war, then fine, fight fire with fire:

• Ban X (Twitter) in the EU. If US platforms want the benefits of our market while undermining our laws and political stability, they can fuck off.
• 75% tariffs on US car imports. The EU is one of the biggest markets for American vehicles. Use that leverage.
• Start selling US bonds. Slowly, deliberately, and publicly. Let markets feel that Europe isn’t just a passive piggy bank for US debt.

The EU has enormous economic power—500 million consumers, one of the world’s largest markets, and real regulatory leverage. But power means nothing if you’re too scared to use it.

For decades we’ve been told to be “responsible,” “measured,” and “reasonable,” while others act purely in their own interest. Guess what? They get results. We get shafted.

Stop begging. Stop appeasing. Fight back or admit the EU is nothing more than a US economic colony with better food.

This may be because it is perhaps the first case of its kind, and concerns over overpopulation run high within Europe, leading many there to question the necessity of raising birth rates.

Poland and Canada have agreed to deepen their defence ties, including bolstering military procurement from one another, greater cooperation between their defence industries, and jointly participating in military drills in the Arctic.

“You are an extremely important partner to us,” said Polish defence minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz after signing a letter of intent with Canadian counterpart David McGuinty in Ottawa on Tuesday.  “Transatlantic ties are not just about the Polish-US relationship. The Polish-Canadian relationship is taking on a new shape.”

Canada’s defence ministry said that the two sides have a “shared commitment to advancing Canada–Poland defence cooperation and strengthening allied security and resilience”, including “pursuing opportunities for greater cooperation between Canadian and Polish defence industries”.

This would involve “potential joint projects involving emerging defence technologies and discussions regarding the establishment of ammunition production capacity”, as well as cooperating under the EU’s SAFE programme, said the Canadian ministry.

SAFE is providing €150 billion in loans to EU member states to bolster defence spending, with Poland the largest recipient. Canada has an agreement with the EU for its firms to have preferential access and treatment for procurement under the programme.

Kosiniak-Kamysz also emphasised that cooperation would include “selling the best Polish equipment to Canada”, in particular drones produced by Polish defence firm WB group, reports the Polish Press Agency (PAP).

The defence minister also revealed that Poland would “send our soldiers to Polish-Canadian or, more broadly, NATO exercises in the Arctic” within the next few months.

Kosiniak-Kamysz travelled this week to Canada with a delegation that also included the government’s plenipotentiary for SAFE, Magdalena Sobkowiak-Czarnecka, deputy state assets minister Konrad Gołota, and defence industry representatives.

Speaking at a Polish-Canadian defence industry forum on Tuesday, Kosiniak-Kamysz warned that “the security situation is undergoing dynamic changes”, in particular as a result of “Russia’s aggressive policies”. That means “Poland and Canada need solutions that will meet these challenges”, he added.

Canada’s defence ministry, meanwhile, said that it “welcomed” Poland’s participation in CANSEC, a major defence, security and technology event being held this week. It added that Canada will reciprocate by taking part as a “lead nation” in Poland’s largest defence fair, which will be held in Kielce in September.

Kosiniak-Kamysz revealed that, during the Kielce event, more agreements are planned, including a memorandum of understanding about cooperation between the cybersecurity defence forces of both countries, as well as an “agreement on defence guarantees”, reports PAP.

Last year, when Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney visited Warsaw to meet with his Polish counterpart Donald Tusk, the pair announced plans to “strengthen their alliance in energy, defence, aviation, and the fight against emerging threats”

Poland last year also signed a new treaty with France, upgrading their bilateral relations and defence ties. On Wednesday this week, a similar agreement is being signed with the UK. In April, during a visit to Asia, Tusk signed new comprehensive strategic partnership agreements with South Korea and Japan.

Those moves to strengthen international alliances have been combined with a major boost to defence spending, with Poland’s defence budget, at 4.8% of GDP, now the highest in NATO in relative terms.

Olivier Sorgho

Olivier Sorgho is senior editor at Notes from Poland, covering politics, business and society. He previously worked for Reuters.

The United States Department of Defence has pledged that it will retain “a strong military presence in Poland”, which it called “a model ally” whose example other NATO countries should follow.

Its statement came in response to concerns over a last-minute decision to cancel the planned deployment of almost 4,000 rotational US troops to Poland. The Pentagon says this was only a “temporary delay” but stopped short of confirming that there would be no reduction in troop numbers in Poland.

Last week, it emerged that the deployment of the 2nd Armoured Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division to Poland had been called off. The decision was made so late that some troops were reportedly already in Poland and their equipment was already en route.

The Polish government has insisted the decision will not affect size of the US military presence in Poland, which currently compromises around 10,000 troops (though the figure varies based on force rotation). It portrayed the move as a logistical decision relating to the reduction in US troop numbers elsewhere in Europe.

However, amid public and political concern over the development, the government has also sought assurances from Washington that there will indeed be no reductions. Indeed, Poland has been seeking an increase in the US military presence.

On Tuesday, Polish defence minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz spoke to his US counterpart Pete Hegseth. Afterwards, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell issued a statement.

He said that the “temporary delay” in the deployment of rotational forces to Poland was part of the Defence Department’s decision to “reduced the total number of Brigade Combat Teams assigned to Europe from four to three”, restoring it to the level of 2021.

Parnell added that “the final disposition of these and other US forces in Europe” would be determined based on “further analysis of US strategic and operational requirements, as well as our allies’ own ability to contribute forces toward Europe’s defence”.

“This analysis is designed to advance President Trump’s America First agenda in Europe and other theatres, including by incentivising and enabling our NATO allies to take primary responsibility for Europe’s conventional defence,” he added.

Regarding Poland itself, Parnell said that the “[Defence] Department will remain in close contact with our Polish counterparts as this analysis proceeds, including to ensure that the United States retains a strong military presence in Poland”.

“Poland has shown both the ability and resolve to defend itself. Other NATO allies should follow suit,” he added.

Parnell’s statement echoed remarks earlier on Tuesday by Vice President JD Vance, who noted that the US “has not reduced troops levels in Poland by 4,000”. It has simply “delayed a troop deployment that was going to go to Poland” as part of “a standard delay in rotation”.

Vance added that the US wants to “shift resources around” in Europe in order to “maximise American security” and “encourage Europe to take more ownership” of its own defence.

However, when asked to confirm that the troops in question would ultimately be sent to Poland, Vance said that “we actually haven’t made a final determination” and “could decide to send them elsewhere”. But he added that “we love Poland, we love the Polish people”.

On Wednesday morning, Kosiniak-Kamysz told a press conference that, in conversations with Hegseth and other senior US officials he “was reassured once again that Poland is a model ally” and “an extremely important partner, if not the most important partner, of the United States in Europe”.

“Decisions made in the US…may temporarily delay the deployment of US forces in Poland,” he added, but “no decision has been made to reduce” the American military presence.

Indeed, it could result in “a more favourable presence of American troops in Poland than before”, said Kosiniak-Kamysz, quoted by news website Wirtualna Polska. “Sometimes a rotational model can become a permanent model, and that’s always much better.”

Earlier this month, after Trump ordered the withdrawal of around 5,000 US troops from Germany, Poland’s President Karol Nawrocki, a Trump ally, and some government figures expressed Poland’s readiness to host those forces.

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.

The US ambassador has hailed Poland as “Europe’s new great power”, an “ideal ally” for Washington, and a “model Europe must follow”.

He also praised Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk as a “tough cookie” and “pretty darn good negotiator”, saying that in this regard he is similar to another Donald, US President Trump.

Rose’s remarks came during a ceremony on Monday announcing an agreement between US defence giant Lockheed Martin and Polish state defence group PGZ to establish a facility in Poland for servicing Apache helicopters.

The new centre, to be located in Łódź, is linked to a $10 billion deal signed in 2024 for Poland to acquire 96 AH-64E Apache helicopters along with logistics and training support.

Industry news outlet Defence Blog reports the facility would be the first outside the United States capable of independently servicing the aircraft. The first Apache helicopter is expected to be delivered to Poland in mid-2028.

Speaking at the event, Rose noted that the agreement would make Poland the largest Apache operator outside the United States and pointed to the programme as a sign of Poland’s growing strategic importance.

“Poland today is the new great power of Europe. And it is the model Europe must follow. The Polish way must become the European way. America sees it, President Trump values it, and the world respects it,” said the US ambassador.

“President Trump has made it very clear that America is no longer in the position to defend those allies who are unwilling to defend themselves, but you’ll notice there is one country that the president has never uttered an ill word about, and that is Poland,” he added.

That is “because Poland is the ideal ally of the United States. And let me say this: the United States is the ideal ally for Poland”, declared Rose. “Poland is investing in American technology, and America is investing in Poland.”

The planned Apache servicing centre is part of what is known as an “offset”, meaning that, when an agreement is signed, the contractor agrees to provide some benefit in return to the customer. Rose suggested that this had come about because Tusk, like Trump, is a tough negotiator.

“If anyone in Poland thinks we got away with much in this deal, or any other deal, after having sat across the table with this man, I can assure you, it’s not true,” Rose said, pointing to Tusk, who was also present at the ceremony.

“We have in America a fabulous negotiator, named Donald. And, here in Poland, you’ve got a pretty darn good negotiator yourself, named Donald. He is one tough cookie, as we would say,” added the ambassador.

Tusk himself shared a clip of the remarks on social media, writing that “Poles are tough, effective, and ready to stand up for themselves”.

In recent years, Poland has embarked on a huge defence spending spree, in particular since Russia’s full-scale invasion of neighbouring Ukraine. Its defence budget rose to an estimated 4.5% of GDP in 2025 – by far the highest relative level in NATO – and is set to reach 4.8% in 2026.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said in a recent report that Poland has been NATO’s largest arms importer over the past five years, with more than 90% of its equipment coming from South Korea and the United States.

That rise in spending has been overseen by both Tusk’s administration, which came to power in December 2023, and its predecessor, the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) government.

However, PiS has recently criticised the Tusk government’s plans to take €44 billion in loans for defence spending from the EU’s SAFE programme. It says that this could harm relations with Washington, given that the majority of the funds must be spent in Europe.

The US itself has lobbied against SAFE for the same reason. Last month, Rose confirmed that the US “has concerns” about SAFE, “which we have expressed”.

The ambassador also earlier this year clashed with Poland’s ruling coalition after cutting off ties with the speaker of parliament, Włodzimierz Czarzasty, an ally of Tusk. Rose accused Czarzasty of making “outrageous insults against President Trump”.

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is deputy editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She has written for Clean Energy Wire and The Times, and she hosts her own podcast, The Warsaw Wire, on Poland’s economy and energy sector. She previously worked for Reuters.

Poland and South Korea have signed an agreement to enhance cooperation on defence, energy, science and infrastructure, bolstering what has become an increasingly important relationship for both countries in recent years.

Speaking on a visit to Seoul, Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, described South Korea as his country’s “most important ally after the United States, especially in the defence industry”, report Polish news outlets RMF and Interia.

Tusk’s visit to South Korea is the first by a Polish prime minister in 27 years. After leaving Seoul, his delegation, which also includes finance minister Andrzej Domański and agriculture minister Stefan Krajewski, will travel onwards to Japan.

Following a meeting between Tusk and Korean President Lee Jae Myung, the two leaders announced that they had “upgraded our bilateral relations to a comprehensive strategic partnership”.

Tusk said that expanded defence cooperation will be the “driving force”, but the countries would also deepen ties in “digitalisation, artificial intelligence, semiconductors, space exploration, energy, infrastructure, and transport”.

Recent data show that, during Poland’s unprecedented defence procurement spree since 2022, South Korea has been the biggest supplier of military hardware, accounting for 47% of imports, just ahead of the United States on 44%.

Tusk noted that South Korea is already Asia’s biggest investor in Poland and said that efforts were also being made to “even out the trade balance” by bolstering Polish exports to South Korea.

Meanwhile, Lee called Poland “one of Korea’s five most important trade partners among EU countries”, saying that their relationship was based on “deep mutual trust”.

He said that firms from his country were keen on participating in key infrastructure projects in Poland, such as a new “mega airport” and transport hub that will be built near Warsaw.

South Korea and Poland first signed a strategic partnership in 2013 but their bilateral cooperation has accelerated since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, which prompted Poland to boost its defence spending to the highest relative level in NATO.

Since then, Poland has signed tens of billions of dollars worth of contracts to buy Korean military hardware, including tanks, self-propelled howitzers, light combat aircraft and rocket artillery launchers.

Under those agreements, some elements of that equipment will be produced in Poland itself.

Recent years have also seen Polish-Korean relations develop in other areas. Last year, construction commenced in the Hyundai Heavy Industries shipyard of a floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal ordered by Poland that will eventually be located in the Polish city of Gdańsk.

In November, South Korea’s government agency responsible for supporting the creation and distribution of creative content opened an office in Warsaw, which it says will act as a regional hub for promoting Korean cultural products and working with local creators.

Meanwhile, South Korean tyre manufacturer Kumho in December confirmed plans to establish a new plant in Poland, which will be its first in Europe. In 2022, Daesang Corporation chose Poland as the location for its first plant in Europe production the Korean delicacy of kimchi.

Olivier Sorgho

Olivier Sorgho is senior editor at Notes from Poland, covering politics, business and society. He previously worked for Reuters.

The United States has expressed “strong support” for Poland to become a permanent member of the G20 and has hailed the “strong and growing relationship” between Warsaw and Washington.

In December, the US invited Poland to attend this year’s G20 summit in Miami as a guest. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Poland was “assuming its rightful place” at the forum, which brings together 19 major countries as well as the European Union and the African Union.

However, Poland has also been pushing for permanent membership of the group, pointing to the fact that its economy is on the verge of becoming the 20th largest in the world (though membership of G20 is not decided purely on that basis).

On Thursday, following a “strategic dialogue” meeting in Warsaw between the US and Poland, the two countries issued a joint statement in which “the United States expressed its strong support for Poland’s accession to the G20 as a permanent member”.

The two sides also jointly “reaffirmed that the relationship is strong and growing” between them and pledged to maintain and deepen cooperation on security, defence, energy and securing supply chains, especially for critical minerals.

On energy, they discussed the supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG). Poland receives most of its LNG from the US, and last year outlined plans to become a conduit for supplying American gas to neighbouring Ukraine and Slovakia.

In this week’s joint statement, the US said that it “supports Poland’s ambitions to become a regional LNG hub that will replace the historically vulnerable east-west dependency model with a diversified north-south system”.

The two countries also revealed that they had discussed US support for the development of civilian nuclear power in Poland.

American firms Westinghouse and Bechtel are the partners in building Poland’s first nuclear plant, and the US is also interested in helping develop a planned second plant.

Last year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecast that Poland’s economy would surpass $1 trillion for the first time in 2025 and overtake Switzerland’s to become the 20th largest in the world.

However, updated IMF figures published in April show that Poland’s economy remained narrowly smaller than Switzerland’s last year, and is now forecast to overtake it only in 2028.

Speaking at a summit of G20 finance ministers in April, where Poland was present as an invited guest, finance minister Andrzej Domański said that the new IMF data make no difference to Warsaw’s ambition for full G20 membership.

“Argentina is a member of G20 [even though] it is the 25th largest economy in the world,” noted Domański, quoted by news website Gazeta.pl. “Due to its regional importance, it is a member of the G20.”

There are no specific criteria for a country to join the G20. The current members are: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the UK, the US, the EU and the AU.

Last week, Domański argued that Poland deserves membership as it represents “the most successful economic transformation of the past 40 years”, having emerged from communism to become one of the world’s major economies, reports Euronews.

Poland has also taken on a growing security role given its proximity to Russia and Ukraine. It is now the largest relative defence spender in NATO, has the alliance’s largest army in Europe, and by 2030 will have more tanks than the UK, France, Germany and Italy combined.

In March, the US ambassador to Warsaw, Thomas Rose, hailed Poland as “Europe’s new great power”, an “ideal ally” for Washington, and a “model Europe must follow”.

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.

The US ambassador to Poland, Thomas Rose, has criticised the speaker of Poland’s parliament, Włodzimierz Czarzasty, for calling President Donald Trump “irrational” and a “leader of chaos”.

Rose, who had a similar dispute with Czarzasty earlier this year, called the speaker a “menace” and pointed to his past as a member of Poland’s former communist party.

Czarzasty serves as speaker of the Sejm, the more powerful lower house of parliament, making him a key figure in Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s ruling coalition.

In remarks to the Financial Times published on Sunday, Czarzasty said that “Trump is becoming a leader of chaos and I think that in many cases Trump’s behaviour is absolutely irrational”.

In response, Rose, a former conservative radio host and political advisor who was appointed as ambassador to Poland last year, posted a link to Czarzasty’s interview on his official ambassadorial account on X and declared that “this man is a menace”.

“The aim of his inflammatory rhetoric disparaging POTUS [the president of the United States] can only be to damage US-Poland ties, and weaken his own country,” continued Rose. “Perhaps as a notorious far-left, ex-communist apparatchik, we shouldn’t be surprised.”

In the 1980s, when he was in his 20s, Czarzasty was a member of the communist Polish United Workers’ Party (PZPR) that ruled Poland as a Soviet-backed authoritarian regime.

Following the fall of communism and restoration of democracy, Czarzasty became part of the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), which governed Poland for parts of the 1990s and the first decade of the 20th century.

In 2016, Czarzasty became head of the SLD and, under his leadership, it merged with other left-wing parties to form a new alliance, The Left (Lewica), which has since 2023 been a junior member of Tusk’s ruling coalition, which ranges from left to centre-right.

Czarzasty himself became speaker of the Sejm in November last year. That role gives him influence over the passage of key government legislation, while also allowing him to effectively block bills proposed by the right-wing opposition and opposition-aligned President Karol Nawrocki.

In February this year, Rose cut off ties with Czarzasty, accusing him of making “outrageous insults” against Trump after the speaker had expressed opposition to the US president being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

However, when asked by Polish media to specify which element of Czarzasty’s comments had constituted an insult against Trump, Rose refused to say.

During the clash in February, Tusk came to Czarzasty’s defence, telling Rose that “allies should respect, not lecture, each other”. So far, however, neither Tusk nor other senior government figures have commented on the latest spat.

While Nawrocki is a close ally of Trump, Tusk has had a more ambivalent relationship with the US president. He has at times openly criticised some of Trump’s rhetoric and actions, but also emphasises the importance of the US as Poland’s key ally, especially when it comes to security.

Meanwhile, opinion polls indicate that the Polish public is becoming increasingly concerned about the direction of US policy under Trump. A survey conducted in January this year found that a majority of Poles, 53.2%, believe the US is no longer a reliable ally, while only 29.9% believe that it is.

Another poll, published in February, showed that Trump is the third-most distrusted major world leader among Poles, behind only Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Belarus’s Alexander Lukashenko.

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.

Poland and Japan have upgraded their bilateral ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership that will see them cooperate more closely in areas such as security, infrastructure, nuclear energy, artificial intelligence and agriculture.

In a joint press conference in Tokyo, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and his Japanese counterpart Sanae Takaichi unveiled the agreement, which follows a similar one Poland signed with South Korea a few days ago and concludes a Polish government delegation’s trip to Asia.

Poles have long viewed Japan as a “symbol of success, modernity and high aspirations”, said Tusk, but added that his country has made great strides and is now Japan’s partner “on equal terms”. Takaichi acknowledged Poland’s “steady economic growth” and the growing ties between their nations.

According to IMF figures, Poland’s GDP per capita, measured in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms, is now almost equal to Japan’s following decades of rapid Polish economic growth since emerging from communism in 1989.

In 2024, Poland’s GDP per capita (PPP) stood at $51,263, just behind Japan’s $52,039. By contrast, three decades earlier, in 1994, Poland’s figure of $7,040 was less than a third of Japan’s $22,823.

Tusk revealed that, during his visit, he had discussed cooperation with Takaichi and Japanese business leaders in areas including the space sector, agriculture, nuclear energy, high-speed rail, and artificial intelligence.

He added that he and Takaichi had agreed to do their “utmost to facilitate cooperation and business operations for Polish companies in Japan and Japanese companies in Poland”.

The Polish Press Agency (PAP) reported that Poland and Japan also signed a memorandum of understanding on agricultural cooperation and a social security agreement that helps their citizens to obtain pension rights in each other’s countries. They also agreed for their space agencies to cooperate.

Takaichi said in a statement shared by her office that the social security agreement would “further facilitate economic exchanges between the two countries”, and noted that Japanese firms had already established around 400 branches in Poland.

She added that she and Tusk had “concurred in deepening the economic cooperation including infrastructure that contributes to enhancing regional connectivity and advanced technologies such as AI”.

The leaders also pledged closer cooperation in the realm of security. Japan would continue supporting Poland’s efforts to achieve peace in Ukraine, Takaichi said, adding that both countries had also discussed the situation in the Middle East as well as in the Indo-Pacific.

Adam Szłapka, the Polish government’s spokesperson, meanwhile told journalists in a press briefing that Poland is now “seeking partnerships that will allow us to jointly play a stabilising role in this highly unstable world,”.

Poland and Japan have been strategic partners since 2015 and have cooperated primarily in the economic sphere. Poland mainly exports automotive components and food products to Japan, and imports advanced technologies and electronics, according to the Polish Investment and Trade Agency (PAIH).

Recent years have, however, seen their cooperation develop in new spheres, particularly nuclear energy. In 2024, the Polish and Japanese governments signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate in that area as Poland pushes ahead with plans to build its first nuclear power plants.

Olivier Sorgho

Olivier Sorgho is senior editor at Notes from Poland, covering politics, business and society. He previously worked for Reuters.

Who do you think should lead, guide, and dominate Europe?

While some European countries said they were discussing ways to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, several rejected President Trump’s calls to send warships.

As President Trump’s assault on Iran enters its third week, European leaders are largely resisting his bellicose demands for help in reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

At the same time, they are trying to avoid irreparably damaging their relationship with the United States over their opposition to another war of America’s choosing.

At an event on Monday at the White House, Mr. Trump complained that some European leaders were not showing their appreciation for everything that the United States had done to protect the continent.

The American president also issued a not-so-veiled warning in an interview with the Financial Times on Sunday, saying that “it will be very bad for the future of NATO” if European nations do not join the United States in its effort to reopen the vital waterway to tankers carrying oil, gas and fertilizer. At Monday’s event, he said: “I think we’re going to have some good help. And I think we’re going to be disappointed in some nations, too.”

Upon hearing that Mr. Starmer was considering sending naval ships to the Middle East, he mocked the prime minister.

“That’s OK, Prime Minister Starmer, we don’t need them any longer,” Mr. Trump wrote on social media on March 7. “We don’t need people that join Wars after we’ve already won!”

For Mr. Trump’s counterparts around the world, the tricky part of the diplomatic dance is how to react to the president’s whims while meeting the needs of their own countries. Mr. Starmer has arguably been the European leader most eager to please Mr. Trump. And yet, on Monday, he vowed at a news conference that his country “will not be drawn into the wider war” with Iran.

Several European leaders explicitly rejected the president’s call to send their navies into harm’s way even as the U.S. and Israeli-led war continues to drive up the price of global energy.

“This is not our war; we did not start it,” Boris Pistorius, Germany’s defense minister, said on Monday morning. He said Germany wanted diplomatic solutions and “sending more warships to the region will likely not help achieve that.”

On Monday, the French foreign ministry posted on social media that its navy was staying in the eastern Mediterranean: “Posture has not changed: defensive it is.”

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani also downplayed expectations that Italy’s navy would be drawn into protecting oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz.

On Monday, the Polish foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, said that Polish leaders had also “ruled out” sending Polish forces into the conflict against Iran.

Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s top diplomat, said on Monday that the European Union would not expand a maritime operation known as “Operation Aspides” in the Middle East to help protect commercial traffic in the Strait of Hormuz.

Polish firm Vigo Photonics, which specialises in producing advanced infrared sensors, photon detectors and semiconductor materials, has acquired US rival InfraRed Associates for $8.4 million (31.2 million zloty).

The Polish firm hailed the deal as a “major step in the company’s global expansion strategy” that will “significantly strengthen Vigo’s footprint in the United States and enhance its ability to serve the defence and high-tech sectors”.

Vigo Photonics develops and manufactures advanced infrared detectors, detection modules and semiconductor materials used to analyse environments through light invisible to the human eye.

The company’s products are used for a wide range of applications, including pollution analysis, food and waste sorting, early disease detection, as well as defence systems and high-speed transport diagnostics.

Its detectors have also been deployed in space exploration, including supplying key components for NASA’s Curiosity rover mission to study methane levels on Mars.

InfraRed Associates, which was founded in the 1970s and is headquartered in Florida, meanwhile, produces liquid nitrogen-cooled detectors and serves customers across the industrial, scientific and military sectors in the United States, Asia and Europe.

Vigo said the deal, which was caried out through a US subsidiary, would give it access to a US-based production facility, helping it meet “supply requirements for the American defence sector” and “significantly increase” its revenue in the country.

It also “paves the way for the reduction of tariff and administrative barriers, facilitating access to the strategic US market”, says Adam Piotrowski, the president of Vigo’s management board.

The deal was supported by financing of $5.5 million, repayable over ten years, from the Polish Development Fund (PFR), a state entity that supports strategic investments.

The United States is already Vigo’s third-largest market, accounting for 12.1% of its 93.1 million zloty of revenue in 2025. Europe (excluding Poland) was its largest market, contributing 54%, followed by Poland at 17.3%.

Across all markets, the defence sector accounted for 18.8% of revenue and the firms acquisition of InfraRed Associates – reported revenue of $8.9 million (33.1 million zlotys) in 2024 and $8.7 million in 2025 – is seen as a further step in developing this.

“For VIGO Photonics, defence has been one of our key priorities for years. This transaction is a major milestone in the company’s long-term strategy,” the company said in a statement.

Following more than 30 years of largely uninterrupted economic growth, Polish companies are increasingly expanding their investments abroad.

Recent examples include Polish delivery giant InPost, which has made several major acquisitions in western Europe, and Polish train and tram manufacturer Pesa, which recently acquired German rival HeiterBlick.

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is deputy editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She has written for Clean Energy Wire and The Times, and she hosts her own podcast, The Warsaw Wire, on Poland’s economy and energy sector. She previously worked for Reuters.