BERLIN, Sept 17, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Poland's right-wing nationalist president Karol Nawrocki visited Berlin and Paris on Tuesday, as his country seeks help to shore up its eastern defences in the wake of a major Russian drone incursion.

Nawrocki has often been a fierce critic of Germany, but Poland is seeking the support of its EU and NATO partners after last week's incident, when at least 17 drones violated its airspace.

Russia has denied targeting Poland, but Warsaw says the incursion was a deliberate attack and has raised fears that Moscow's confrontation with the West could escalate beyond the Ukrainian battlefield.

Germany now plans to extend its air defence mission in eastern Poland by three months while doubling the number of its Eurofighter combat jets deployed to four.

France will send three Rafale jet fighters to join them.

European support is all the more important to Poland now that US President Donald Trump has played down the incursion, suggesting that the drones may have entered Polish territory by "mistake".

Nawrocki is a fervent admirer of Trump, but Poland insists Russia was deliberately testing NATO's defences and has called for allied support.

Poland and some of its European allies scrambled jets to down the drones.

- 'Historic responsibility' -

The first leg of Nawrocki's visit was to Berlin for talks with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and then a meeting with Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

On the question of security, Merz's deputy spokesman Sebastian Hille said in a statement after the meeting that "Germany stands firmly and unwaveringly at the side of Poland in view of the threat from Russia".

As expected, Nawrocki used his visit to bring up the question of German reparations, which he has previously demanded be paid to Poland for the treatment of Polish civilians during the World War II occupation.

He said in a post on X that his meetings with Steinmeier and Merz touched on "regional security challenges, the future of the European Union for Polish-German relations, and reparations".

"I clearly emphasised both the issues that unite us and Poland's expectations of the German side," he said.

Hille said only that "reconciliation with Poland after the horrors of World War II and the German occupation remains a historic responsibility for the German government".

Germany argues that Poland renounced any claim to reparations in 1953, while under pressure from the Soviet Union.

The German government made clear in the run-up to Nawrocki's visit that the position had not changed.

- Trade deal -

This stance is just the latest to put Nawrocki at odds with Prime Minister Donald Tusk's pro-European government.

In 2022, the right-wing nationalist government in power in Warsaw at the time estimated Polish losses during World War II at 1.3 trillion euros ($1.5 trillion).

The Polish foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, has said seeking financial compensation is futile, arguing that Poland should resign itself to that fact in the name of Polish-German relations.

In a press conference later on Tuesday Nawrocki suggested to reporters that a possible solution could be Germany "financing Polish military industry and military capacities" in lieu of reparations.

This would "strengthen something very important to all of us, namely the eastern flank of Nato which is the frontline region of the current war," he added.

After Berlin, Nawrocki headed to Paris to meet his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, to discuss defence and the free trade agreement between Latin American Mercosur countries and the European Union.

Poland has already declared that it will vote against the agreement, which it considers highly detrimental to Polish and European agriculture, and that it will seek to ally France to its cause.