President Donald Trump said on Thursday that efforts to establish a US Army base in Poland were moving forward, presenting the proposal as a possible strengthening of the alliance between Washington and Warsaw.
Trump made the announcement on Truth Social and credited Karol Nawrocki, Poland’s president and a conservative ally of the US president, with advancing the plan. ‘Thanks to the bold leadership of my friend, Karol Nawrocki, President of Poland, major progress is being made toward establishing a US Army base in Poland,’ Trump said.
He said no location had been made public. ‘If this happens, the location will be announced very soon. This will be a historic step for our Great US/Polish Alliance,’ Trump said.
The announcement points to a possible permanent US military presence in a country where American forces have generally served on a rotational basis. Almost 10,000 US soldiers are currently stationed in Poland, and almost all are there on rotation.
Poland lies on NATO’s eastern flank and borders both Ukraine and Russia. The country, which is also a member of the EU, has pushed for a permanent US presence while spending around five percent of its GDP on defence.
Warsaw disclosed in August that it was in discussions with Washington over a permanent US military presence. Pawel Zalewski, Poland’s deputy defence minister, said then that the two governments were considering a permanent US base on Polish territory. He said the initial stage of the process had been completed.
Nawrocki thanked Trump on X and said Poland was ‘ready to continue our efforts to strengthen our defense cooperation’.
Zbigniew Bogucki, head of the Polish president’s chancellery, called Trump’s statement ‘great news for Poland’. Bogucki said the announcement came on the 87th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland.
The proposed base has emerged while the Trump administration is conducting a formal review of its military presence in Europe. Trump’s statement gave no timetable for completing negotiations or building a base. It also gave no details of the force that could be assigned there, the cost of the project, or how a permanent base would affect the existing rotational deployments.
Nawrocki visited the White House last year, when Trump offered to send more US troops to Poland. The latest announcement signals continued interest in closer defence ties with Warsaw, though it leaves unresolved how the base proposal will fit into the wider review of US forces in Europe.
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