Poland has postponed a Pentagon visit by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defence Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz following an urgent request from Washington. The Polish Ministry of National Defence said on September 21 that both sides were working to set a new date.
Kosiniak-Kamysz had been due to meet Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth on September 23. In a statement on social media, the ministry said the change had been made solely at the request of the US side.
It added that, following signals from Washington and a recent meeting of NATO chiefs of staff, new security measures for alliance members now needed to be taken urgently. The ministry gave no further details.
The Pentagon offered a different explanation. In a message passed to the Polish Press Agency (PAP), it attributed the postponement to a scheduling conflict and said the meeting would be rescheduled soon.
The talks had been expected to cover Poland’s defence, including a possible maintenance centre in the country for PAC-3 missiles used by Patriot air defence systems, PAP reported. The question of a permanent US base was also expected to feature, according to Polish daily Rzeczpospolita.
In the minister’s absence, Warsaw said it would send deputy defence ministers Magdalena Sobkowiak-Czarnecka and Paweł Zalewski to Washington. According to the ministry, the pair would hold talks with US partners and prepare further agreements on bilateral cooperation.
The postponement came five days after US President Donald Trump said major progress was being made towards establishing a US Army base in Poland. Writing on Truth Social on September 17, he credited Polish President Karol Nawrocki and said the location could be announced very soon.
Trump described the potential base as “a historic step” for the alliance between the two countries. He did not say whether it would host permanently stationed troops, the outcome Warsaw has pushed for.
Kosiniak-Kamysz formally proposed a permanent base to Hegseth on June 3. Poland currently hosts around 10,000 US troops, most of them on a rotational basis.
The Pentagon is meanwhile reviewing its force posture in Europe. NBC News has reported that it is weighing the withdrawal of at least 25,000 of the roughly 80,000 US troops on the continent, mainly from Germany, Italy and Spain, with Poland reportedly excluded.
The base project has become central to Nawrocki’s relationship with Trump. Nawrocki is backed by the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, while the Trump administration has kept its distance from Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s coalition, of which Kosiniak-Kamysz’s Polish People’s Party (PSL) is a member.
