A military expert assessed the prospects of the US-Polish project “Fort Trump” under the new US President
The curtailment of the Fort Trump project is likely to be one of the symbols of ending bilateral actions without looking at the opinions of other allies, which were carried out by the Donald Trump administration, said Dmitry Stefanovich.
“It seems to me that the new White House administration will put this project in a long box, or forget about it at all. As one of the priorities of Joe Biden’s administration is explicitly stated to restore good relations with NATO allies and European allies”, – Stefanovich said in a conversation with Baltnews.
The expert recalled that although the Fort Trump project had been discussed, it had never been formalised. In fact, there was only a small increase in the American military contingent in Poland – but this is not at all what the current Polish leadership would like, says the political scientist.
“Fort Trump assumed a permanent and massive presence of American forces in Poland, which remained a theoretical possibility. It happened so, because despite everything, the Americans were aware of the escalating nature of such a project, as well as the fact that European allies of the USA would not agree with it”, – the analyst emphasised.
According to him, one of the reasons why these relations have deteriorated sharply was the policy of giving priority to bilateral treaties under Trump.
“The Trump administration has made bilateral agreements, rather than the search for consensus solutions within the alliance, a priority option. Now everything will be different”, – Dmitry Stefanovich concluded.
Earlier, the American edition of The Washington Times expressed the view that the change of power in the US would mark the end of the Fort Trump project.
The publication notes that with the arrival of Joe Biden at the White House, Poles will finally have to give up their dreams of a permanent American military base on their territory.
Let’s remind that in September, 2018 the president of Poland Andrzej Duda during visit to Washington has suggested Donald Trump to allocate for the USA two billion dollars for construction of military base on the territory and to name it after the head of the White house “Fort Trump”.
In addition, Warsaw recently signed an agreement with the US on enhanced military cooperation. It envisages increasing the number of US troops in Poland by one thousand and placing the headquarters of the 5th Corps of the United States Army in Poznan.