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Trump will welcome President Andrzej Duda of Poland to the White House on June 12 to discuss the strategic relationship between the two states.
According to senior administration officials, the President of the Republic of Poland Andrzej Duda will be visiting the White House tomorrow to meet with President Trump. In a bilateral meeting, the two leaders will speak about the defense relationship between Poland and the United States as well as expanding energy contacts. The officials stated that Mr. Trump will be making a “significant announcement” on the two states’ relationship tomorrow and that a joint statement will be issued.
The officials spoke about the military relationship between the U.S. and Poland as being positive. “I see Poland as a country that is a very strong ally with us at NATO,” the official stated citing Polish support in Iraq and Afghanistan.
On the NATO-Russia Founding Act, the officials stressed that the announcement by the White House tomorrow “will be completely consistent with commitments we’ve made at NATO.”
The official also stated that Poland has submitted a letter of request to purchase an F-35 jet through the Pentagon and that they are “working through our formal military sales process to get them an offer.”
Yesterday, the Department of Defense reached an agreement with Lockheed Martin Co to reduce the price of the F-35 jet by 8.8%. Other potential buyers include Singapore, Greece, Romania, Spain, Finland, Switzerland, and the United Arab Emirates.
President Duda is a member of Poland’s Law and Justice populist right-wing party. The Ministry of National Defense in Poland has expressed interest in establishing a permanent U.S. military base in Poland because, “[e]stablishing such a force is necessary to present an unequivocal challenge and deterrence to Russia’s increasingly emboldened and dangerous posture that threatens Europe.”