Poland seeks G20 membership to cement its status as a major power

Poland wants a place in the G20 to confirm what it sees as its new standing among the world’s leading economies. The country’s gross domestic product has surpassed $1 trillion, and Warsaw has the backing of the United States as it pursues permanent membership in the group.

Finance Minister Andrzej Domański returned from a meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors in Asheville with an upbeat assessment. “Poland is one of the leaders in economic growth,” he said, adding that the country is “growing at the fastest rate in the entire EU and we will be at the forefront of growth among G20 countries.”

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Poland is one of the leaders in economic growth.

Poland’s economy grew 3.7% in the second quarter, following 3.5% growth in the first, according to Eurostat. The government expects growth of 3.5% for the full year. Its budget draft, adopted last week, nevertheless forecasts a slowdown to 3% in 2027 and 2.6% in 2028.

A permanent place in the G20 would carry deep political and strategic significance, according to experts. Agata Wisniewska, an investment adviser to major banks including ING and PKO, said membership would confirm Poland’s leading role in central and eastern Europe. It would also show that the country, whose economy is 17 times larger than it was in 1989 when communism fell, is “a first-division country and on the rise.”

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Growing at the fastest rate in the entire EU and we will be at the forefront of growth among G20 countries.

Nawrocki has received an invitation from U.S. President Donald Trump to attend the G20 leaders’ summit in Miami in December. His planned trip to the United States in late September is intended to consolidate bilateral ties and his rapport with Trump, helping clear the way for Poland’s entry into the group.

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A first-division country and on the rise.

Warsaw is also highlighting its security role. Poland is regarded as a strategic U.S. ally and is NATO’s highest defense spender relative to its economy, with defense spending expected to reach 4.51% of GDP in 2027. The government is presenting that security role, along with strong growth, stock-market records and unemployment of 3.4% in July, as evidence that Poland is no longer a peripheral economy.

Domański has called the country’s progress “the most successful economic transformation of the last 40 years” in Europe. The World Bank calculated that Poland’s real GDP in 2014 was almost 2.5 times its 1990 level after average annual growth near 4%. Eurostat data show that Poland’s unemployment rate is the European Union’s second-lowest, behind the Czech Republic.

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The most successful economic transformation of the last 40 years.