Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced at monday that there will be a sharp increase in defence spending, saying the country needs to arm faster in the face of the war between Russia and Ukraine.

Prime Minister Morawiecki said the country’s defence budget would amount to four percent of gross domestic product (GDP) this year. Parliament last week approved the 2023 budget for the military, which includes $22.5 billion, or three percent of GDP, but that budget has yet to be signed by the President. “The war in Ukraine is pushing us to rearm even faster. That’s why we will make an unprecedented effort this year: four percent of GDP for the Polish army,” said Morawiecki.

According to figures from the transatlantic alliance, Poland spent 2.4 percent of its GDP on the military in 2022, the third highest among NATO countries. NATO has a spending target of two percent of GDP for its members. Morawiecki said raising defence spending to four percent “could mean that this would be the highest rate among all NATO countries” and did not elaborate on how this would be financed.

Other European countries have also announced that they have increased the budgets of their armies. Poland, which is also a member of the European Union, as also featured in C4Defence, has signed many arms deals in recent months to increase its defence capacity. In early January, the government approved the purchase of 116 Abrams tanks from the United States in a deal worth $1.4 billion, which is expected to arrive in Poland later this year. The war, which has been going on for months, continues to increase the defence expenditures of countries day by day.