Polish President Andrzej Duda has received assurances from Washington that the United States will not reduce its presence on NATOʼs eastern flank.
He told reporters in Warsaw after a meeting with the US Special Representative for Ukraine and Russia Keith Kellogg.
He was assured of this by both Kellogg and the US Treasury Secretary Pete Hegseth. According to Duda, Hegseth emphasized "that we can rather expect an increase in the American presence here".
The Trump administration has not formally declared plans to withdraw troops from the region, but has said Europe must do more to ensure its own security, a stance that has raised questions about whether Washington will honour its long-standing commitments to NATO partners.
The day before, on February 17, the British The Economist and the American Financial Times wrote that there are fears among European officials that Trump will agree to withdraw US troops from the Baltic states and, perhaps, "further west," as Putin wants.
- The United States currently has more than 100 000 troops in Europe, a number that has increased since Russia began a full-scale war against Ukraine.
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