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The United States has confirmed that it will maintain its military presence in Poland, the Polish defence minister has revealed after talks with his US counterpart in Brussels.
The defence ministers of NATO countries gathered today, with their meeting focused on enhancing deterrence, expanding counter-drone measures, bolstering defence investment, and supporting Ukraine.
NATO Defence Ministers concluded their meeting where they discussed:
🔹 Enhancing deterrence and defence
🔹 Increased defence investments
🔹 Additional counter-drone measures
🔹 Stepping up support to UkraineTap the image for all #DefMin details ↓
— NATO (@NATO) October 15, 2025
On the sidelines of the summit, Polish defence minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz met with US defence secretary Pete Hegseth for talks, which Kosiniak-Kamysz said had “reaffirmed the allied commitments between the United States and Poland”.
Hegseth praised Poland for being a “leader” on defence spending (it has NATO’s highest relative defence budget this year, at 4.5% of GDP) and “confirmed the stable presence of American troops in Poland”, said the Polish defence minister. Around 10,000 US military personnel are stationed in Poland.
Donald Trump’s return to the White House has raised concerns that he will seek to move some American troops out of Europe. However, following a meeting with Polish President Karol Nawrocki last month, Trump said that those in Poland would remain, and may even be reinforced.
Speaking today, Kosiniak-Kamysz said that the US was maintaining its presence because “Poland is investing in arms, has very good relations with the US, is an important economic partner, and we make huge purchases from our American allies”.
He said that confirmation US troops will remain gives Poland an “advantage over those countries that are still wondering whether American soldiers will stay”, reports news website Onet.
At today’s summit, Hegseth publicly praised Poland and Germany for bolstering their defence spending towards NATO’s new target of 5% of GDP, reports the Polish Press Agency (PAP).
Poland's defence spending, at 4.5% of GDP, is the highest in @NATO this year, new data from the alliance confirm.
In addition, Warsaw devotes 54.4% of its defence budget to equipment, which is also the largest figure in NATO https://t.co/mDbnsoABQB
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) September 2, 2025
Among the issues discussed at the gathering was the new Eastern Sentry mission launched by NATO last month in response to the unprecedented violation of Polish airspace by Russian drones.
Speaking to the media, UK defence secretary John Healey, who also held private talks with Kosniak-Kamysz, announced that his country is extending its commitment to Eastern Sentry, meaning “British jets will continue to fly over Poland until the end of the year”.
Meanwhile, Kosiniak-Kamysz and the defence ministers of Norway, Denmark, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Sweden, Iceland and Finland signed a letter of intent to establish a further Nordic-Baltic training centre in Poland for Ukrainian soldiers.
Poland also signed a letter of intent with Ukraine regarding joint production of defence equipment and other mutual support between the two countries’ defence industries.
Norway has opened a new facility in Poland for training Ukrainian military personnel.
Camp Jomsborg, as it is known, will also allow Western forces to draw on Ukraine's battlefield experience, says Poland's defence minister https://t.co/1YHqsEG1NX
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) October 2, 2025
Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Main image credit: MON (under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 PL)
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
