US President Donald Trump has announced that the US will send an additional 5,000 troops to Poland, just a week after the Pentagon announced the postponement of a planned rotation of 4,000 troops, the BBC reports.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the decision was made with good relations with Polish President Karol Nawrocki in mind. Trump did not elaborate on whether the additional troops would be part of a previously planned rotation or a completely unrelated operation.
The White House has signaled in recent weeks that it wants to reduce the number of American troops in Europe, thereby adhering to the “America First” narrative. In May, the US announced the withdrawal of 5,000 troops from Germany, after Trump took issue with criticism of the US-Israeli war on Iran by the embattled German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Trump also criticized Merz for saying that Iranian negotiators had humiliated Americans. It is currently unclear whether the additional troops promised to Poland will be units withdrawn from Germany or whether a separate group of soldiers will be formed.
Trump has also been harsh about the reluctance of NATO allies to join the Americans in putting pressure on Iran over the Strait of Hormuz.
A meeting of NATO foreign ministers is scheduled for the 22nd of in Sweden,
and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will also attend. He is expected to call on allies to shoulder some of the burden currently being shouldered by Washington. Before the meeting, Rubio asked the BBC whether the US could reduce the total number of troops available in the event of an attack on NATO countries, to which Rubio replied that some of these issues would be discussed at the meeting. He added that Trump was very disappointed with the attitude of the allies.
Polish President Nawrocki is a supporter of Trump’s policies and received US support before the election. Speaking to BBC Radio 4 in January, Nawrocki said that Trump was the only leader in the world who could stop Putin and end the war in Ukraine.
Despite Trump’s criticism of NATO, Nawrocki insisted that the US remains the guarantor of Europe’s security.
Several Republican politicians have criticized Trump’s decision to withdraw troops from Germany, saying that it sends the wrong message to Russia. The US military presence in Germany is the largest in Europe, with more than 36,000 American troops currently stationed there. There are about 12,000 US troops in Italy, and about 10,000 in Britain.
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