THE United States could relocate troops currently deployed to Germany to Poland, President Donald Trump said at the weekend.

The remarks, welcomed by the Polish government, suggest his widely reported intention to reduce the US military footprint in Germany does not signal a general retreat from European deployments.

“It’s possible, Poland would like that,” Mr Trump told reporters on the redeployment, before stressing his good relationship with the country’s President Karol Nawrocki, a career anti-communist whose jobs running Gdansk’s Museum of the Second World War and the Institute of National Remembrance saw him shift narratives to highlight alleged Soviet and communist crimes relative to those of the Nazi occupation.

Mr Nawrocki is aligned with the hard-right Law & Justice party, and frequently at loggerheads with the Civic Coalition of Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

Poland has built up the third biggest military in Nato, after the US and Turkey, and US forces are currently leading Nato Sabre Strike 26 exercises across Poland, Lithuania and Finland with other Nato militaries.