Poland's president, Andrzej Duda, said on Tuesday that U.S. officials had assured him that Washington did not intend to lower troop numbers in Eastern Europe, after meeting Donald Trump's Ukraine envoy.
Old certainties about Washington's role in ensuring European security have been upended over the past week. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told a press conference in Poland last week that NATO allies could not assume the U.S. would be present in Europe forever.
However, after meetings with Keith Kellogg on Monday and Hegseth on Friday (February 14), President Andrzej Duda sought to reassure Poles about Washington's plans.
"There are absolutely no American intentions to reduce activity here in our part of Europe. Especially, in terms of security, to reduce the number of American soldiers," Duda said.
"On the contrary, ladies and gentlemen, when I spoke with Secretary Hegseth, he said very clearly that we can rather expect a strengthening of the American presence.
"We even talked here about the fact that I hope that Fort Trump, which we talked about during the first term of President Donald Trump, will really be established and that there will be a very strongly rooted American military presence in our country," he added.
Kellogg will travel to Ukraine to meet President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv following his visit to Poland.
Currently, approximately 10,000 U.S. personnel are on rotation in Poland, according to the U.S. Department of State.
