Poland’s Government has said the United States has confirmed it would resume the rotation of its troops on Polish territory within weeks, reversing a suspension that had cast doubt over reinforcements on NATO’s eastern flank.
Polish defence minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz announced the move on July 6, 2026, at a defence industry event in Bydgoszcz, northern Poland. He said he had received confirmation from deputy US ambassador Stephanie Holmes and the US military attaché.
“It will continue, and in the coming weeks this process will be fully implemented,” Kosiniak-Kamysz said of the rotation, which had been paused several weeks earlier.
The minister framed the decision as a further step in Polish-American security and defence cooperation. He was speaking after the signing of an agreement for a Polish factory to produce US-designed Barracuda cruise missiles.
Washington announced in May that it was suspending the long-planned rotation, part of a wider review of its military presence in Europe. The United States has argued that European countries should shoulder more of the cost of their own defence.
President Donald Trump said days later that the United States would send 5,000 additional soldiers to Poland, which borders Ukraine and Belarus, a close ally of Russia. The pledge followed the re-election of Polish President Karol Nawrocki, whose campaign Trump had backed.
The Polish Government had previously said it was working to secure the troops’ return, though it had given no timetable.
Some Republican lawmakers had complained that the deployment did not materialise despite Trump’s announcement, with several warning they could vote against an $88 billion (€75 billion) funding request tied to the conflict with Iran.
Poland has separately submitted a formal request to Washington for a permanent US military base on its territory. Such a facility would allow the country to host more troops, adding to the roughly 10,000 US personnel currently stationed there.
The announcement came a day before a NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, on July 7-8, 2026, where Trump was expected to meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk, speaking at the same event, called on all sides of Poland’s political spectrum to remain united in support of Ukraine’s war effort.
