WARSAW (dpa-AFX) – According to the Polish government, the US Department of Defense has not made a decision to reduce troops in the NATO country. He learned this in a conversation with his American counterpart Pete Hegseth, wrote Poland’s Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz on
Last week, the Wall Street Journal, citing a Pentagon official, reported that the US Defense Department had stopped sending the combat brigade of 4,000 soldiers to Europe. The decision was communicated at a meeting between the European Command of the US Armed Forces (Eucom) and parts of the US Army. It was actually expected that the soldiers would be stationed in Poland for a nine-month deployment.
Around 10,000 US soldiers stationed in Poland
The government in Warsaw immediately denied that the country was affected by the ban on postings. But there was confusion and ambiguity for a long time afterwards. After his conversation with Hegseth, Kosiniak-Kamysz now wrote: “The decisions made are in no way directed against our strategic partnership. The Pentagon is currently working on a new plan for stationing its troops across Europe.”
In response to a reporter’s question in Washington, US Vice President JD Vance said that the number of troops in Poland had not been reduced by 4,000 soldiers. Rather, the dispatch of troops that were supposed to go to Poland was postponed. That is not a reduction. Vance spoke of a common delay in rotation.
Just three weeks ago, Hegseth ordered the withdrawal of around 5,000 US soldiers from Germany. Poland then reaffirmed its willingness to accept more US soldiers. According to the Polish Ministry of Defense, there are currently almost 10,000 US soldiers stationed in Poland. Most of them rotate regularly between different US military bases in Europe./dhe/DP/nas