Alliance head Mark Rutte commented on US President Donald Trump's decision on sending troops to Poland. More on DW.
NATO's military commanders will work through details, Rutte said, during remarks to reporters ahead of the alliance's foreign ministers' meeting in Sweden.
US to send 5,000 troops to Poland: What to know Trump said Thursday he plans to send 5,000 troops to Poland, a move meant to reassure an ally.
"Based on the successful Election of the now President of Poland, Karol Nawrocki," Trump wrote in a social media post, "I am pleased to announce that the United States will be sending an additional 5,000 Troops to Poland." But the decision led to confusion because it came two days after the Pentagon announced that it was suspending the deployment of a brigade combat team (4,000 to 4,700 troops) to Poland.
Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said then that that meant there was going to be a "temporary delay" of the scheduled deployment of US forces to Poland.
The Pentagon's move was also surprising because it was Germany, not Poland, that criticized the US strategy in Iran, drawing Trump's ire.
It was not clear whether Trump's announcement meant the brigade would resume its deployment to Poland, if additional troops on top of that rotational deployment could be added, or whether there would still be a drawdown of US troops in Europe but from a different country.
Trump said the US would reduce troops in Germany in early May. The Trump administration has said it would hope Europe would take on the primary responsibility of security on the continent from the US.
The comments come in reaction to US President Donald Trump announcement that the US would deploy 5,000 additional troops to Poland despite Washington previously having said it would draw down its presence in Europe.
Tsakhna was also cited as saying that it was clear European states need to step up.
Breaches of European airspace put NATO on high alert To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video https://p.dw.com/p/5EAbD Skip next section Welcome to our coverage 05/22/2026 May 22, 2026 Welcome to our coverage Roshni Majumdar | Felix Tamsut | Saim Dušan Inayatullah Editor Today we'll be following all the updates from NATO 's meeting in Sweden, in which the alliance's members will discuss the most recent developments in Russia's full-scale war in Ukraine , as well as its members' defense spending.
Ahead of the meeting, NATO head Mark Rutte welcomed US President Donald Trump's decision to station more troops in Poland, while also emphasizing Europe's security should remain in the continent's own hands.
Estonia's foreign minister also commented on Trump's decision, saying it's up to the US to decide its troops deployment in Europe.
Join us as we cover the meeting throughout the day.
