President Donald Trump has made a U-turn and announced the United States will send an additional 5000 troops to Poland, a week after cancelling it due to European allies' stance on the Iran conflict.
Trump, in a Truth Social post, cited his relationship with Poland's conservative nationalist president, Karol Nawrocki, as the reason behind his decision to send additional troops.
The announcement comes after the Pentagon last week cancelled the deployment of an armoured brigade of more than 4000 troops to Poland, as part of a reconfiguration of its military presence in Europe.
The US had been reviewing its troop presence in Europe and had long been expected to scale it back following demands from Trump that NATO take a larger role in the defence of Europe.
"Based on the successful Election of the now President of Poland, Karol Nawrocki, who I was proud to Endorse, and our relationship with him, I am pleased to announce that the United States will be sending an additional 5000 Troops to Poland," Trump said in the post.
Trump hosted Nawrocki at the White House in May last year and backed him at a crucial moment ahead of the Polish election in which Nawrocki went on to defeat the candidate of Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk's pro-European, centrist party.
He met Nawrocki again at the White House in September, and said at the time the US could increase its troop presence in Poland and pledged to secure the country's defence.
About three weeks ago, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the withdrawal of about 5000 US troops from Germany. The move came after German Chancellor Friedrich Merz criticised Trump's approach towards Iran.
Poland subsequently reaffirmed its willingness to host more US troops. As of mid-May, around 7400 US soldiers were stationed in Poland, according to US military sources. Most rotate regularly between different US military bases in Europe.
with EFE and DPA
