WARSAW – US Prime Minister Mike Pompeo on Saturday signed a treaty for defense cooperation with Polish officials that will pave the way for more US troops to Poland.
Pompeo, in Warsaw at the end of a tour of four nations through Central and Eastern Europe, signed the agreement with Polish Minister of Defense Mariusz Błaszczak setting out the legal framework for the additional troops.
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“This will be a comprehensive guarantee: a guarantee that in the event of a threat our soldiers will stand by,” said Polish President Andrzej Duda during the signing ceremony. “It will also serve to increase the security of other countries in our part of Europe.”
The deal would also strengthen other aspects of US-Polish cooperation, he added, citing primarily investment and trade ties.
Some 4,500 U.S. troops are currently based in Poland, but about 1,000 more need to be added. Last month, the Pentagon announced in response to President Donald Trump’s request to reduce troop numbers in Germany that 12,000 troops from Germany would be withdrawn, with some 5,600 moving to other European countries, including Poland.
In addition, several U.S. military commands will be relocated from Germany, including the U.S. Army V Corps’ foreign headquarters, which will relocate to Poland next year.
The deal would also strengthen other aspects of US-Polish cooperation, he added, citing primarily investment and trade ties.
The pact signed on Saturday complements a NATO pact and makes it possible to improve and modernize existing capabilities and facilities by giving American troops access to additional Polish military installations. It also provides a formula for sharing the logistics and infrastructure costs of an expanded U.S. presence in the country.
“The opportunities are limitless, the resources will be available,” Pompeo said later at a news conference alongside Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz.
“Troop levels matter … but so has the world,” Pompeo said, referring to threats posed in space, cyberspace and disinformation campaigns. He said such defense agreements would also allow work on those threats.
Czaputowicz said the presence of U.S. troops “improves our ability potential because we are closer to the potential source of conflict.”
“It is important that they are deployed here in Poland and not in Germany,” he said.
Trump said the pact was the culmination of months of negotiations.
“The agreement will enhance our military cooperation and increase the US military presence in Poland to strengthen NATO’s disarmament, European security and ensure democracy, freedom and sovereignty,” Trump said in a statement.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, and Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak greet each other after signing the US-Poland Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement during the presidency in Warsaw, Poland, on Saturday, August 15, 2020. (Janek Skarzynski / Pool via AP)
Trump has long complained that Germany is not spending enough on defense. NATO nations have pledged 2% of their gross domestic product.
After the signing ceremony, Pompeo arrived at Duda and other Polish leaders at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to mark the centenary of Poland’s land recapture against the Russian Bolsheviks in 1920 during the Polish-Soviet War.
During the Battle of Warsaw, often referred to as the “Miracle on the Vistula”, Polish troops led by Marshal Józef Piłsudski defeated a progressive Red Army. The battle is crowned with the stopping of the west of the Bolsheviks, and remains a source of enormous national pride in Poland.
Saturday’s signing came just a day after the Trump administration suffered a humiliating diplomatic loss to the United Nations when its proposal to extend an arms embargo on Iran indefinitely was defeated in a UN Security Council vote. who saw only one side of the country with the American Pompeo will visit that country, the Dominican Republic, on Sunday before the inauguration of his new president.
Pompeo said in Warsaw that it was “sorry” that France and the United Kingdom, permanent members of the Security Council, did not support the US position and that Washington would continue to press on the issue.
“The United States simply wanted to keep the same rules that have been in place since 2007,” he said. “I think there are a lot of people who understand that it is not in the world’s interest to pass this arms embargo. I hope they find the courage to say this in public.”
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Pompeo has used its European tour to warn the region’s young democracies about threats posed by Russia and China. In Poland, the reception was particularly warm, considering the friendship between Trump and conservative Polish President Duda, who was sworn in for a second term of five years earlier this month after a second controversial election.
Many of the policies pursued by the ruling Conservative government of Poland have been violated by Poland with the European Union, which fears that the government’s efforts to change the judiciary and other actions will law and democracy in the EU nation eroded.
