Trump hails progress toward US military base in Poland

US President Donald Trump welcomed “major progress” on Thursday towards the creation of an American military base in Poland, after Warsaw indicated it was in discussions with Washington on the subject.

“Thanks to the courageous leadership of my friend, Karol Nawrocki, President of Poland, major progress has been made toward establishing a U.S. Army base in Poland. If this comes to fruition, the location will be announced very soon,” he wrote on his Truth Social network. “This will be a historic milestone for our great alliance between the United States and Poland,” he added.

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10,000 American soldiers in Poland

Around 10,000 American soldiers are currently stationed in Poland, almost exclusively in a rotation system. The United States has formally launched a review of its military presence in Europe, intended to push it to assume “primary responsibility for its conventional defense”, thus raising the specter of a significant reduction in its presence on the Old Continent.

Poland, which plays a strategic role on the eastern flank of NATO and already devotes around 5% of its GDP to defense, is modernizing its army with billions of euros in purchases, particularly from the United States, and working to strengthen the American presence on its territory. The United States has harshly criticized many European countries for refusing American forces the use of NATO bases on their territory during the war against Iran.

The American Minister of Defense, Pete Hegseth, had also threatened the Alliance to reduce the American contribution to its budget if certain States refused to respect the commitments made last year at the NATO summit in The Hague. The Allies had promised to devote, by 2035, at least 5% of their gross domestic product to their security spending, including 3.5% to their strictly military spending.