Poland Presses Pentagon for Multiple Permanent US Bases, Says No Thanks to Nuclear Warheads

Poland wants more than a handshake and a rotation schedule from Washington. It wants permanent American bases, plural, on its own terms.

Polish Deputy Defense Minister Paweł Zalewski said Poland and Pentagon officials are actively discussing where to put several new US military installations in the country, following an August 27 meeting with Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby on the sidelines of a North Atlantic Council session at NATO headquarters in Brussels. "We believe it doesn't have to be concentrated in one place," Zalewski told Polish Radio afterward, according to The Epoch Times. "There are several locations we want to discuss with the U.S. side where such a presence would be truly massive."

According to Brussels Signal, an official from Colby's office will travel to Poland soon to review the sites Warsaw has proposed. No locations have been agreed to yet.

The Money and the Ask

Roughly 10,000 US troops are already in Poland, most on a rotational rather than permanent basis, per armenpress.am. Poland's defense department says it spends about $15,000 per US troop stationed there. Zalewski made clear Poland isn't just chasing bigger numbers. He said the priority is capability Poland doesn't currently have, specifically reconnaissance and command-and-control functions, over simply adding more boots on the ground.

Zalewski also framed the request as strategic rather than reactive. "A permanent U.S. presence would reflect America's long-term strategic interest in the country, not merely respond to the recent activities of Russia," he said, according to Epoch Times reporting by Jill McLaughlin, which was also carried by NTD and ZeroHedge.

How We Got Here

This didn't come out of nowhere. Poland formally requested new permanent US bases in June, after the Pentagon in May canceled a planned rotational deployment of about 4,000 troops as part of a broader review of America's military footprint in Europe, according to Brussels Signal. That cancellation triggered pushback from Polish President Karol Nawrocki and Republican lawmakers in Washington. President Trump responded on May 21 by announcing on Truth Social that the US would send 5,000 additional troops to Poland instead, crediting Nawrocki's election and what Trump called "our relationship with the Polish President."

Nawrocki is widely regarded as Trump's closest ally in Europe, per Brussels Signal, while Prime Minister Donald Tusk has had a rockier relationship with the administration stemming from 2023 remarks, which Tusk later denied making in the way reported, accusing Trump of being a "Russian asset." Poland's push for bases is happening inside that political backdrop.

The broader frame is the Pentagon's ongoing European force posture review, announced by War Secretary Pete Hegseth in June and formally launched by Colby on July 27. That review covers roughly 80,000 US troops across Europe, with nearly half stationed in Germany, and NATO allies have publicly worried it could lead to further American drawdowns. Zalewski said he hopes for progress on Poland's request around the time that six-month review wraps up, but added he doesn't want to be "a hostage to any deadline."

The Nuclear Wrinkle

The talks in Brussels also touched on nuclear weapons logistics, Zalewski said. Zalewski was explicit that Poland does not want nuclear warheads on its territory. "We want to participate in NATO nuclear deterrence but that does not mean to have nuclear warheads on our territory," he said.

NATO's existing nuclear sharing arrangement, which places US warheads in countries like Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, and Turkey under dual-key control, typically requires hosting the weapons to "participate" in the way Poland says it wants to. Zalewski's comment left room to wonder exactly what kind of participation Poland is actually asking for.

Poland's own Minister of National Defense, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, moved quickly to clarify. He posted on X the same day: "To dispel any doubts: Poland remains steadfastly interested in participating in the NATO Nuclear Sharing program. We are also conducting talks regarding the proposal for participation in the European nuclear protective umbrella. Our government's stance on these issues is unequivocal." Whether that statement squares neatly with Zalewski's no-warheads comment, or simply keeps Poland's options open while public opinion at home is sounded out, is a question Warsaw hasn't fully answered.

The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment on the base talks by the time Epoch Times published its report. No specific locations, timelines, or troop figures have been finalized. The next concrete marker to watch is the site visit by Colby's office, and whether it produces an actual list of proposed installations before the Pentagon's six-month European posture review concludes.