He is scheduled to meet with President Andrzej Duda and Defence Minister Mariusz Błaszczak "to enhance bilateral cooperation in security and deepen the Polish-American partnership, which is vital to addressing today's current threats and challenges," according to a statement by the US Department of Defense.
Austin will also meet with US and Polish troops at Powidz Air Base in west-central Poland "to tour the facilities and observe the culture and conditions of America's rotational presence there," the statement said earlier this week.
He will later travel to Lithuania to meet with that country's top officials and "reaffirm that the United States stands with Lithuania, working together to strengthen the Lithuania armed forces and continuing to stand shoulder to shoulder against threats and adversaries to advance shared interests and values," according to the US Department of Defense.
Austin this week took part in a meeting of NATO defence ministers in Brussels to discuss Russia’s military buildup in and around Ukraine.
He warned on Thursday that the United States "has seen Russia stocking up on blood supplies, inching troops closer to Ukraine's borders and flying in more combat aircraft."
'Firmness and unity of NATO:' Polish defence minister
Poland’s Błaszczak told reporters on Thursday that all NATO members were in favour of strengthening the alliance’s eastern flank amid the Russian military buildup around Ukraine.
Speaking to reporters after the two-day meeting of NATO defence ministers in Brussels, the Polish minister stressed that “the alliance is united,” Poland's PAP news agency reported.
Błaszczak added: “It’s important for us to contain the growth of the Russian sphere of influence so that our neighbouring countries can independently choose which alliances to join.”
“The firmness and unity of NATO is the only method of containing the Kremlin’s aggressive policy,” he told reporters.
His words came after NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg announced a day earlier that the alliance was considering moving new battalion groups to its eastern flank amid the Russian threat to Ukraine.
Washington last week said it would send 3,000 more troops to Poland to reinforce NATO's eastern flank amid heightened concerns over a possible new Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Russia annexed the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 and then fomented a separatist conflict in that country's eastern Donbas region, leading to a wave of EU and US sanctions against Moscow and Russian officials.
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Source: PAP, defense.gov