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Decision on permanent US troop presence in Poland likely next year: official

PR dla Zagranicy
Grzegorz Siwicki 18.09.2018 15:00
A decision on a possible permanent US troop presence in Poland is likely to be made next year, a Polish official said on Tuesday.
Adam Bielan. Photo: Polish RadioAdam Bielan. Photo: Polish Radio

Senior parliamentarian Adam Bielan was speaking as Polish President Andrzej Duda was later in the day scheduled to meet US leader Donald Trump at the White House and the media was rife was speculation about possible Polish-US deals.

Bielan, deputy Speaker of the upper house of Poland’s parliament, told public broadcaster Polish Radio that “the formula of stationing US troops in Poland” would be one of the subjects on the table for talks between Duda and Trump.

"There have been talks for many months between experts about the possibility of changing the nature of US troop presence in Poland” from rotational to permanent, Bielan noted.

He said, however, that the final decision was unlikely to be made in the coming months “because the decision-making process in such cases is quite complicated in the United States," and involves "not only the White House ... but also the Department of State, the Department of Defense and both houses of Congress."

The permanent deployment of US troops to Poland was Polish Defence Minister Mariusz Błaszczak's main talking point during meetings at the Capitol and the Pentagon on Friday.

Błaszczak told Polish Radio in July that Poland was in talks with the United States to host permanent US army bases, and that the talks were “on the right track.”

(gs/pk)

Source: PAP, Polish Radio

tags: defence
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