WARSAW: Poland’s def­ence minister said on Monday that he had held talks with US officials about having thousands of American troops permanently stationed as a deterrent in Poland.

Poland is concerned for its own and the region’s security following Russia’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula, its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine and other steps seen as hostile.

Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said he recently held talks in Washington about having a permanent presence of US troops in Poland, where they are currently on a rotational, temporary, though open-ended mission.

“The result of our efforts is that the US Senate has contacted the Pentagon about an assessment of ... (the) permanent presence of US troops in Poland,” Blaszczak said on state Radio 1. “Such presence is of great importance because it deters the adversary.”

In Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said that an increase in the West’s military presence near Russia’s borders “certainly does not contribute to security and stability on the continent in any way.” “On the contrary, these expansionist steps, certainly, result in counteractions of the Russian side to balance the parity which is violated every time this way,” Peskov said, according to Russian news agency Tass.

Published in Dawn, May 29th, 2018