Defence minister to discuss new US army base for Poland
PR dla Zagranicy
Paweł Kononczuk
29.10.2018 08:30
Defence Minister Mariusz Błaszczak is to hold talks with officials in the US about setting up a new permanent American army base in Poland amid fears of Russian aggression.
Photo: pixabay.com/CC0
Błaszczak is expected to discuss the plan, dubbed “Fort Trump”, at a meeting with President Donald Trump’s National Security Adviser John Bolton.
Polish President Andrzej Duda suggested in a media interview this month that a possible new permanent US military base in Poland could effectively be a done deal.
Poland already hosts US troops on a rotating basis as part of NATO, and the Polish section of a US missile defence shield over Europe is being built by the Americans at Redzikowo in the north of the country.
Senior Polish parliamentarian Adam Bielan said last month that a decision on a possible new permanent US troop presence in Poland was likely to be made next year.
Błażej Spychalski, a spokesman for Polish President Andrzej Duda, 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 and medical facilities.
Amid fears of Russian aggression following Moscow's annexation of the Crimea region of Ukraine in 2014, NATO decided at a Warsaw summit in July 2016 to deploy four rotating multinational battalions to Poland and the three Baltic states.
(pk)