Thursday, 25 June _President Donald Trump has said that the United States plans to redeploy some troops from Germany to Poland “to send a very strong signal to Russia.”
Trump said he looked forward to signing a "defense cooperation agreement" with Polish President Andrzej Duda, who was the first foreign leader to visit the White House since the COVID-19 pandemic, which has left more than 121,000 people dead in the United States, hit in March.
"They're going to pay for that ... for the sending of additional troops and we'll probably be moving them from Germany to Poland," he said.
"We are going to be reducing our forces in Germany" from 52,000 to 25,000 troops, Trump said after an Oval Office meeting with his populist ally Duda.
Duda called it a "very reasonable decision" and said he had asked Trump not to withdraw US troops from Europe "because the security of Europe is very important to me."
The Polish media said 30 US F-16 fighter jets stationed in Germany could also be moved to the eastern European country as Polish officials have raised the prospect of a more permanent US presence -- perhaps in a facility paid for by Warsaw dubbed "Fort Trump."
Poland has constantly demanded a boost in US military assistance particularly after the Ukraine crisis and the rejoining of Crimean peninsula to Russia in a referendum in 2014.
The meeting with Trump came just four days before Poland’s presidential election, in which Duda seeks a second term.
The timing of the meeting was criticized by Duda’s opponents as an attempt to gain a pre-election windfall.
"President Duda is doing very well in Poland. He's doing a terrific job." Trump said following the meeting.
Some US officials condemned Trump's decision to host the Polish president days before the country's presidential vote.
US Representative Marcy Kaptur, a Democrat from Ohio who co-chairs the Congressional Poland Caucus said, "As a Polish-American and someone who deeply values the US-Poland relationship, I am troubled by President Trump's inappropriate efforts to insert himself into Polish domestic politics and boost President Duda's reelection with a White House visit."
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