Maciej Wąsik said the deployment would be twice the number initially requested by border guards, news agencies reported.
Wąsik told reporters on Monday that the Border Guard agency was asking the government to send an additional 1,000 soldiers to help stave off illegal migration via Belarus.
Following a decision by Defence Minister Mariusz Błaszczak, "this reinforcement will be not by 1,000, but by 2,000 soldiers," Wąsik announced on Wednesday.
Poland has worried increasingly about the border area since hundreds of battle-hardened Wagner mercenaries arrived in Belarus last month at the invitation of President Alexander Lukashenko, the Reuters news agency reported.
It noted that Belarus started military exercises near the border this week and that Poland has in recent months seen an increase in the number of mainly Middle Eastern and African migrants trying to cross the border.
Wąsik told Polish state news agency PAP on Wednesday that all attempts to illegally enter Poland by migrants were being organised by Belarusian authorities.
"If we had real border guards on the other side, and not smuggling services, these crossings would not exist at all," he said.
The Polish government last week decided to move additional troops and combat helicopters to the Belarusian border, following an incident in which two Belarusian helicopters breached Polish airspace during an air exercise in the area, according to officials.
At the end of last week, the Polish and Lithuanian interior ministers discussed plans for a possible closure of all border crossings with Belarus in response to "emerging threats" from that country and potential "future provocations at the border," according to a statement at the time.
Meanwhile, the Polish defence minister last Friday said he discussed border security with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
The Polish defence minister said in a social media post that he and Austin on August 4 talked about "issues related to the security of Poland and NATO's eastern flank, including in the context of recent hybrid attacks on Poland."
Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Paweł Jabłoński said in an interview with US broadcaster CNN last Friday that "the threat is very real" from Belarus, arguing that Wagner Group soldiers have made attempts to infiltrate Polish territory.
Jabłoński told CNN that the Polish government was weighing whether to close the border with Belarus.
(gs)
Source: IAR, PAP, Reuters