The US will enhance its everlasting navy presence in Poland, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki mentioned on Tuesday after assembly with Vice President Kamala Harris in Washington.

Harris “spoke about strengthening the permanent presence” of American troops in Poland, Morawiecki instructed the Polish broadcaster RMF after his go to to the White House.

“The US is fully committed to strengthening its presence in Poland,” Morawiecki mentioned, including that he additionally mentioned the missile protection complicated at the moment underneath development within the northern Polish city of Redzikowo.

Noting that this was a controversial matter just some years in the past, the PM mentioned he was “very glad that the vice president spoke not only about the additional presence of several thousand soldiers, but also about the construction of a base and warehouses for the accumulation of equipment and American weapons,” supposed to struggle in opposition to Russia in Ukraine. 

Morawiecki spoke with Polish reporters after a joint press look with Harris on the White House. During the presser, the Polish PM mentioned that Warsaw “wants to become a bedrock of European security” and is heading in the right direction to take action, rising its navy spending this yr to 4% of the gross home product.

Harris acknowledged that the “ironclad commitment” of the United States has already “resulted in an increase in the number of troops… that we have sent to Poland,” in addition to the creation of a “new permanent army headquarters” – however stopped in need of publicly saying any new deployments.

“Poland wants to build the strongest army in Europe,” Morawiecki mentioned. “That is why we want to cooperate with the most advanced defense industry in the world, which is the American industry.”

Morawiecki additionally known as shut relations between Warsaw and Washington “the best vaccine against Russian imperialism,” and mentioned the 2 nations have been “two poles of Western civilization.”

Poland is at the moment serving because the logistics hub for NATO to funnel weapons, ammunition and gear to Ukraine, whereas insisting they aren’t really a celebration to Kiev’s battle with Russia. There is not any everlasting US base in Poland, which joined NATO in 1999, because the US-led bloc was bombing Yugoslavia. President Andrzej Duda mentioned in February that some 10,000 US troops have been at the moment quartered in his nation, double the quantity deployed in 2020 on a rotational foundation.

Warsaw had sought a everlasting US base for years, going as far as to suggest naming it “Fort Trump” in 2018, throughout the earlier American presidency. Morawiecki flew to Washington on Tuesday to fulfill with Harris as President Joe Biden departed on a four-day journey to Ireland.