If the US deployed more troops to Poland, it would benefit the entire region, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda said during his visit in Grunwald.
“The possible reassignment of troops will have to do not only with Poland's specific security interests, but also with the security interests of the region as a whole,” Nausėda told reporters on Wednesday after meeting with his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda.
US President Donald Trump has recently announced that he will cut American troops in Germany and may reassign some of them to Poland.
According to Nausėda, Lithuania actively cooperates with Poland on security matters, especially to ensure the security of the so-called Suwalki gap, a 100-kilometre border strip wedged between the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad on the west and Belarus on the east.
“We have been working closely with the Polish side to ensure that aspects of regional security and the Suwalki corridor are included in this discussion and that they are taken into account,” he told reporters.
Nausėda said Duda informed him that the security of the Baltic countries and defence funding were among the issues discussed during his recent meeting with Trump.
The Baltic nations and Poland are among the few NATO member states that meet the target of 2-percent GDP spending on defense.
“President Duda mentioned that Lithuania and the other Baltic countries were specifically mentioned during his meeting with Trump,” Nausėda said. “President Trump is well aware of our efforts to be an active and permanent member of the 2-percent club.”
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