As the informal Defence Council opened in Riga on 17 February, the Polish government announced an increase in the country's defence budget meant to bring it to at least 2% of GDP in 2016. The announcement sounds like a campaign promise in view of the autumn legislative elections.
The Polish constitution currently obliges Warsaw to allocate at least 1.95% of the country's GDP to military expenditure. In recent years, it has been difficult to respect this commitment: up until 2014,…