Polish FM to discuss US troop presence with NATO chief

During his meeting with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz was scheduled to be accompanied by Paweł Soloch, head of the Polish president’s National Security Bureau (BBN), and Deputy Defence Minister Tomasz Szatkowski, according to the foreign ministry in Warsaw.

The talks at NATO’s Brussels headquarters were expected to focus on ways of adapting the Western alliance's defence capabilities to existing challenges and threats, the Polish foreign ministry has said.

It added that the Polish officials intended to brief the NATO chief on the state of talks on strengthening the US military presence in their country, a prospect that was the focus of a meeting between Polish President Andrzej Duda and US leader Donald Trump in Washington in September.

Also on the agenda for Czaputowicz and Stoltenberg in Brussels were issues related to cooperation between NATO and the European Union “against the background of European security initiatives,” the Polish foreign ministry said.

The Polish president suggested in a media interview this month that a possible permanent US military base in Poland was effectively a done deal.

Senior Polish parliamentarian Adam Bielan said last month that a decision on a possible permanent US troop presence in Poland was likely to be made next year.

Błażej Spychalski, a spokesman for the Polish president, said at the end of September that Warsaw wanted to spend about USD 2 billion to build infrastructure for American soldiers in Poland, including “housing, educational facilities, medical facilities.”

(gs)

Source: msz.gov.pl