MOSCOW, May 22. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump has announced that he will send an additional 5,000 troops to Poland.
Poland has no details about Trump’s statements at this point, the republic’s Foreign Ministry said.
TASS has collected key details about the situation.
Trump’s announcement
Washington will send an additional 5,000 troops to Poland, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.
He explained that his decision is connected to the election of the now president of Poland, Karol Nawrocki.
The US leader did not elaborate on exactly what US Army units will be deployed to Poland.
Nor did Trump say if the troops will be pulled from other European countries or if the move will implement a delayed rotation.
Earlier, the US leader said he could pull troops out from Germany to Poland.
Poland’s reaction
Poland is planning to build infrastructure to house the 5,000 US troops and their families, Polish Deputy Defense Minister Pawel Zalewski said.
It was Poland which proposed accommodating US troops on a permanent basis, he specified in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.
Zalewski did not specify where the infrastructure will be located, when it will be built or how much the project will cost.
Poland is interested in a permanent, not rotational, stationing of US troops on its soil, Marcin Przydacz, head of the International Policy Bureau at the Polish presidential office, told RMF24 in an interview.
Rotation of troops in Poland
Warsaw has not received information regarding whether Trump’s announcement actually means that the additional 5,000 US troops will be sent to Poland as part of a delayed rotation or if the troop contingent will simply be increased from 10,000 to 15,000, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said.
According to Poland’s top diplomat, Jacek Najder, Poland’s permanent representative in NATO, is already in touch with NATO leaders and his US counterpart.
Prior to that, Sikorski told reporters that "the presence of American troops in Poland will be maintained more or less at previous levels," or 10,000 soldiers.
Przydacz interpreted Trump’s decision as an indication that "instead of a halted rotation of 4,000 troops, 5,000 will arrive."
On May 15, the Defense News and Army Times news websites reported, citing the Pentagon, that Washington had halted a rotation of 4,000 troops to Poland.
Potential impact on NATO
Europe is afraid that defense-related US decisions may mark the first step toward either a structural overhaul of NATO or a notable dwindling of Washington’s role in the alliance, El Pais reported.
The Spanish newspaper argued that the United States may be embracing a more business-like relationship with NATO in an ambition to keep military capabilities in Europe, directly relevant for its global strategic interests, increasingly pivoting more toward America and Asia and less toward Europe.
US military contingent in Europe
Earlier, Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell said that the number of US brigade combat teams in Europe had been reduced from four to three.
The move will temporarily delay the deployment of US troops to Poland, Parnell added.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte believes that, despite the decision to pull a number of US troop contingents out from Europe, the United States will still play a key role in nuclear and conventional defenses in Europe.
The NATO chief described reports about US troop withdrawals from Europe as part of a long-term trajectory, and part of a "wider rebalancing of responsibilities inside the alliance" for Europe.