Defence Minister Mariusz Błaszczak was scheduled to meet with American officials including Donald Trump's national security adviser John Bolton, Pentagon chief Patrick Shanahan, and Senator James Inhofe, chairman of the US Senate Armed Services Committee, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
Polish President Andrzej Duda and US leader Donald Trump will meet at the White House on Wednesday to discuss “the growing United States-Poland strategic partnership and a range of mutual interests, including defense, security, energy, and trade matters,” according to a statement last month by the White House press secretary.
During the meeting, the two leaders are expected to unveil a political agreement on strengthening the US military presence in Poland, though the exact technical details of the project are still being ironed out.
Krzysztof Szczerski, chief of staff to the Polish head of state, told reporters on Monday that Warsaw and Washington had concluded negotiations on a political deal for a stepped-up US military presence in Poland and that the US troop presence in Poland "will be increased both in terms of quality and quantity."
Błaszczak told reporters in Washington ahead of the Duda-Trump meeting that he believed the two presidents "will have some good news to announce—for Poland, for the United States and for NATO," on Wednesday.
Błaszczak’s trip to Washington was his sixth since he took over as defence minister in January last year, the IAR news agency reported.
"All those meetings have concerned increasing the presence of US troops in Poland," he said, as quoted by IAR.
Błaszczak is on Wednesday expected to join the official Polish delegation, alongside Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz, for talks at the White House with Trump’s men.
While stateside, Błaszczak on Monday visited Eglin Air Force Base in western Florida, the main training site for F-35 multirole fighter jets, the kind of modern aircraft that Poland wants to buy from the United States to replace its fleet of worn-out Soviet-era machines, the IAR news agency reported.
Mariusz Błaszczak visits Eglin Air Force Base in the US state of Florida. Photo: Polish defence ministry
Błaszczak last month said that Poland “sent a request for a quotation … to our American partners regarding the purchase of 32 F-35A aircraft together with a logistics and training package.”
(gs/pk)
Source: IAR