TIRANA – “I don’t think we’ve ever been closer to Poland than right now,” President Donald Trump told Poland’s President Andrzej Duda welcoming him to the White House on Wednesday.
The two presidents have forged a tight relationship since Trump visited Warsaw in 2017, according to a CNN report.
Duda and his delegation all received coronavirus tests ahead of their visit to Washington on Wednesday, as did US officials joining afternoon meetings between Duda and Trump in the Oval Office.
Trump has often remembered back to the Warsaw trip and the large crowd that gathered in a central square to listen to him deliver a speech on US-European relations. Duda, meanwhile, has sought to curry favor with the President by seeking to name a military base in Poland Fort Trump.
“I have a very good personal relationship with the President,” Trump said in the Oval Office.
Duda was expected to raise the issue of relocating some US troops from Germany — where Trump is planning to cut troops numbers by 9,500 — to Poland. Senior administration officials declined to speculate on the number of US troops who would relocate to Poland ahead of the visit, saying final determinations haven’t yet been made.
“It’s premature to cite any specific number to any specific location at this time,” one official said.
Also on the agenda for the visit were energy and trade issues, regional security and reopening plans following the pandemic. Trump last held a meeting with a foreign counterpart in March when Ireland’s leader visited the White House. Days later, Trump announced restrictions on travel from the European Union, the United Kingdom and Ireland./argumentum.al
