P. Soloch: Poland to host land part of major NATO drills
A significant part of the land portion of NATO's Defender-Europe 2020 military exercise will be carried out on Polish territory, Pawel Soloch, head of president-supervised National Security Bureau (BBN), said on the radio on Thursday.
Pwaeł Soloch on Wednesday took part in NATO's anniversary summit in London, alongside President Andrzej Duda, who is the supreme commander of Poland's armed forces.
In October, United States European Command (USEUCOM) announced that the US will send 20,000 troops to Europe for next year's Defender-Europe exercise, the biggest such deployment in 25 years.
"The details are being worked out between the United States and participating countries, or those that will host US troops and cooperate with them. A significant part of the land section of the exercise is to take place on Polish territory," the BBN head told Polish Radio One.
There will be a deployment of an entire US division across the Atlantic, Soloch said. "So the US troops will not come to us from Germany, but will be transferred from America," Soloch said, adding that this should serve as an adequate answer to those who say that "Americans are withdrawing from Europe."
USEUCOM said in its October statement that the exercise will take place between April and May 2020 and the accompanying troop movements between February and July. A total of 37,000 soldiers will take part in the manoeuvres that will span over the territory of ten countries.
Source: PAP