Poland regards the NATO expansion as the most favorable security arrangement. However, they do not look at the NATO expansion as a posibility for strengthening Poland's economic situation. After all, Poland's economic growth was the highest in Europe in 1995 although they were not a member of NATO. Poland's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) "... increased in 1994 - as compared with the previous year - by about 5% (in constant prices)" (Central Office of Planning). According to the Central Office of Planning, in the five years of transformation process after the end of the Cold War, Poland achieved high economic growth and many improvements in quality. This was a result of an improvement in the business cycle, changes in the structure of the economy (i.e. changing to privatization), a growth in the importance of financial processes, and a high social cost of economic transformation. Poland achieved all of this without even being part of NATO, which proves that Poland can take care of its economy even without the NATO expansion.

From the security point of view, however, "Poland's goal of securing full membership in the Atlantic Alliance is one of the major objectives of [their] foreign policy" (Cimoszewicz). In his address at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London, the Polish president, Aleksander Kwasniewski states that

Security is of fundamental value to all states. It provides the necessary framework in which the well-being of their citizens could flourish and in which friendly co-operative international relations could develop. By conscious choice based on informed debate, the Poles have reached the conclusion that security to them means first of all Poland's membership in the North Atlantic Alliance (Kwasniewski).

In Poland's view the NATO expansion involves 'sensitive' issues. As the Polish president states, these issues are:

• a NATO-Russian partnership accompanying the enlargement
• the security situation of the three Baltic states and of Ukraine
• the fate of the 'Partnership for Peace' and the Alliance's relations with states who are not likely to be included in the first round of enlargement
• costs of enlargement
• the future of nuclear deployments in Europe

Poland also agrees that the NATO enlargement should be accompanied by measures strengthening Ukraine's security. A failure to do so might have serious consequences. Poland has been one of the first countries to raise that necessity in the European debate, following its move to recognize the independent state of Ukraine.

Poland, being itself a member, is in favor of the Partnership for Peace (PfP) program. It does not look at the PfP only as a step towards NATO's enlargement, but it recognizes the Partnership's significance to the security in Europe. As a part of the Partnership for Peace, Poland's forces participated in the peacekeeping operation in Bosnia. Apart from the PfP, Poland has also initiated its own "enhanced partnership" with Lithuania (Kwasniewski).

Considering the costs of NATO enlargement, Poland thinks that "...the estimates which have been [the] subject of much heated international debate are exaggerated out of all proportion" (Kwasniewski). A group of Polish professionals wrote a document regarding the Estimated Cost of NATO enlargement in which they state that

No intricate calculations are needed to see that it is always cheaper to join a collective security system than to depend solely on national military resources. For a country of Poland's size, participation in an alliance is the only way of ensuring the country's safety. That is why, before trying to access the cost of joining the Alliance, one must calculate the immense amount of money necessary to build a self reliant security system based solely on national resources and capable of providing a level of security comparable to that guaranteed by a collective defense system. Only after performing detailed analyses of costs involved in such independent effort, can one honestly start to assess potential benefits, as well as expenditures, that joining NATO might entail (Cost of NATO enlargement).

Poland's view on the question of nuclear deployments in Europe is that they "... perceive no security requirement for stationing nuclear weapons on Polish territory" (Kwasniewski). Poland considers the discussion on the nuclear question unnecessary and misleading in the context of enlargement.