Trump hails ‘major progress’ on setting up US Army base in Poland
The US has made major progress in negotiations to establish a military base in Poland, President Donald Trump has announced.
His remarks came as Russia warned that it would retaliate if the territory of Poland or the Baltic states were used for a NATO attack against the country.
Poland, which borders the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad to the northeast, is a key logistics hub for delivering Western military aid to Ukraine and is one of Kiev’s main supporters in Europe.
“GREAT NEWS! Thanks to the bold leadership of my friend, Karol Nawrocki, President of Poland, major progress is being made toward establishing a US Army base in Poland,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Thursday.
“If this happens, the location will be announced very soon. This will be a historic step for our Great US/Polish Alliance.”
Nawrocki responded by promising to find “the best possible location” for the base. “We are ready to continue our efforts to strengthen our defense cooperation: seriously, responsibly, and always together,” he wrote on X.
The US already maintains a permanent Army garrison and command headquarters in Poland, although most of the 10,000 US troops stationed in the country serve on a rotational basis. During Trump’s first term in 2018, Poland offered to host a permanent base tentatively named ‘Fort Trump’.
Under Trump’s successor, President Joe Biden, the US established a garrison headquartered at Camp Kosciuszko in Poznan and permanently stationed the V Corps Forward Headquarters in the city.
Tensions between Russia and NATO have flared in recent months as eastern members of the US-led military bloc have accused Russia of launching drone incursions. Moscow has dismissed the allegations as unfounded.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said during a trip to Kiev over the weekend that “if Russia attacked us and we took our gloves off, I think we would defeat Russia quite quickly.”
Russian presidential aide and former security chief Nikolay Patrushev responded to Sikorski by warning that “Polish statehood would cease to exist within two or three days” if a conflict breaks out.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reiterated this week that the country has no intention of attacking NATO members, but said that if the bloc attacks Russia, the war would be “very short.”
