Donald Trump has no plans to withdraw US troops from Europe. "I wouldn't want to do that", he said when asked if a ceasefire in Ukraine could include such a move. "Nobody has asked me to do that. I don't think we should do that", he added, but did not comment on whether he was thinking about reducing them.
Polish President Andrzej Duda said he had received confirmation that the US would not limit its presence on NATO's eastern flank. "There is no fear that the United States will reduce its presence in our country and that the United States will somehow abdicate its responsibility for the security of this part of Europe," Duda told reporters in Warsaw after meeting with General Keith Kellogg, the US special envoy for Ukraine and Russia.
78,000 US troops in Europe
Duda, a Trump supporter, also returned to an idea he proposed during the Republican's first term - to create a new military base in Poland, called "Fort Trump".
The US deployed troops to Poland after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, but increased them after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Currently, about 10,000 American soldiers are based in Poland, the "Associated Press" recalls.
According to data from Eucom - the US European Command - there are about 78 thousand American soldiers on the Old Continent, 37 thousand of whom are in Germany. The Federal Republic is also home to the largest US air base in Europe - Ramstein.
Poland - "an exemplary ally"
Trump's election and his attacks on NATO partners have raised concerns that the US president may seriously reduce Washington's military presence in Europe. In the past, he has threatened his allies that if they do not increase their defense spending, he would not protect them in the event of a Russian attack.
A few days ago, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said during a visit to US troops in Stuttgart that there were no immediate plans to reduce the number of US troops in Europe. However, during a meeting with his Polish counterpart, Hegseth stressed: "Our message to our European allies is clear: Now is the time to invest, because you cannot expect the American presence to last forever."
Poland spends 4.7% of its GDP on defense - so the country is approaching the 5% that Donald Trump is demanding of its NATO allies. The country also buys a lot of modern American weapons. Warsaw is an exemplary ally, commented Hegseth.