NATO chief comes to Warsaw ahead of Russia-Belarus war games

The NATO chief is scheduled to meet Poland’s top brass and American troops stationed in the country’s northeast.

Stoltenberg is to sit down for dinner with Polish President Andrzej Duda on Thursday night, while meetings with Prime Minister Beata Szydło, Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz, and Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski are also on the books.

Talks will likely focus on the troops which were in April sent to bolster NATO’s eastern flank in Poland, as well as the other soldiers deployed to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, under a decision taken at a summit in Warsaw last year in response to Russia’s aggression in Ukraine.

On Friday afternoon, Stoltenberg is expected to go to Orzysz in Poland’s northeast to see about 1,000 troops, mainly from the US, but also from the UK, Romania and Croatia.

Stoltenberg’s visit to Poland takes place just three weeks ahead of planned Russian-Belarusian war games in western Belarus.

A number of people, including Polish Deputy Defence Minister Michał Dworczyk, Ukrainian military expert Alexey Arestovich, and the US Army’s Chief Commander in Europe Ben Hodges, have all hinted at fears that Russia may leave some of its military equipment behind when it leaves Belarus after the drills finish. (vb)

Source: IAR