US Could Reach Deal With Poland on American Military Base Within 1 Year - DoD

18:37 13.03.2019

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - US and Polish officials meeting in Warsaw this week are drafting details for a planned American military base in Poland and could reach a final agreement on the facility within a year, senior Defense Department officials told Congress on Wednesday.

If negotiators can nail down details, "We're looking at probably six months to a year" before a technical basing agreement can be completed with the US Department of State as the lead negotiator, Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Kathryn Wheelbarger told the House Armed Services committee.

"Then I would defer to my military colleagues for the actual physicality and infrastructure requirements," Wheelbarger added.

Also at the hearing, commander of the US European Command (EUCOM) General Curtis Scaparrotti interjected that "another two to three years would be needed before we would be dealing with an actual base and the money for that base".

At a meeting with his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda in September, US President Donald Trump said that the United States was considering establishing a military base in Poland. Trump also said that Warsaw had agreed to pay more than $2 billion toward the cost of the base. The Polish president, in turn, suggested that the base to be called Fort Trump.

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