The Politico news service reported earlier that Duda could visit the White House next week for talks with the US president amid plans for a troop shift in Europe.
Duda will be the first foreign leader to visit the White House since the beginning of the coronavirus epidemic, which caused all Trump’s meetings with guests from abroad to be suspended, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
US troops in Poland
A visit by the Polish president is likely to coincide with Trump’s plans to announce an increase in the number of US forces stationed in Poland, according to the politico.com website.
Trump plans to cut US troop numbers in Germany by more than 9,000 while increasing the US presence in Poland, Politico reported.
Polish Radio’s IAR news agency earlier on Wednesday cited a Polish presidential aide as saying that a visit by Duda was "not ruled out," but added that “the invitation must be officially announced by the White House.”
Private radio broadcaster RMF FM said it had learned unofficially at the Polish presidential palace that the visit was likely to take place before Poland’s presidential election, which is scheduled for June 28 and in which Duda is seeking another five years in office.
Meanwhile, a senior aide to the Polish president last week slammed what he described as “disinformation” in a Reuters report which said that plans for a military base referred to as “Fort Trump” in Poland have crumbled amid disputes over how to fund the deployment and where to garrison the American troops.
The US ambassador to Poland, Georgette Mosbacher dismissed that article as “fake news.”
Polish Defence Minister Mariusz Błaszczak said that an increasing US military presence in Poland “is a fact.” He wrote on Twitter: “Now we are agreeing the final details and the talks are taking place in a good atmosphere.”
Fears of Russian aggression
Amid fears of Russian aggression, the authorities in Warsaw have been making intense efforts to secure boosted US troop numbers in Poland, which lies on the eastern flank of NATO.
Following Moscow's annexation of the Crimea region of Ukraine in 2014, NATO decided at a Warsaw summit in July 2016 to deploy four rotating multinational battalions to Poland and the Baltic states.
During a meeting at the White House in June last year, Duda and Trump announced a deal on a stepped-up American military presence in Poland while also sealing a raft of economic agreements.
The two presidents in September signed a defence agreement to name locations for more American troops in Poland.
Poland and the United States agreed to bolster defence ties and pledged to step up cooperation on energy projects when Duda and Trump met at the White House in September 2018.
(pk-gs)
Source: Polish Radio/IAR/politico.com, rmf24.pl