Trump says sending 5,000 US troops to Poland • FRANCE 24 English

[0:00] Our top story this hour, NATO Chief Mark Ruda has welcomed the news that President Donald Trump [0:06] will send 5,000 U.S. troops to Poland. The announcement coming as Secretary of State [0:13] Marco Rubio meets with NATO foreign ministers in Sweden this Friday to discuss Trump's [0:19] disappointment with the alliance over the Iran war. Before leaving for his meeting, [0:24] Rubio said Trump was very disappointed in alliance members who had not allowed the U.S. [0:29] to use their bases for the war, signaling Spain out for criticism. Marco Rubio spoke before heading [0:37] into that meeting. Let's take a listen. Obviously, we're here to set the groundwork for what I think [0:43] will be probably one of the more important leaders summit in the history of NATO. The president's [0:50] views, frankly, disappointment at some of our NATO allies and their response to our operations in the [0:57] Middle East. They're well documented. That will have to be addressed. They won't be solved or [1:01] addressed today. That's something for the leaders level to discuss. But in the end, you know, like [1:05] any alliance, it has to be good for everyone who's involved. It has to be a clear understanding of [1:10] what the expectations are. For more on the NATO gathering of foreign ministers, I'm joined on set [1:17] by our international affairs editor, Philip Terrell. Philip, it's great to see you. So as this meeting [1:22] gets underway, what are some of the things topping the agenda? Right. Well, you've got one of them there, [1:28] which is on the deployment of US troops. We'll come back to that in a minute. There are three other [1:32] main topics on the agenda. All of this is taking place ahead of the NATO heads of state gathering, [1:38] which is due to take place in July in Ankara, in Turkey. Just a reminder, there are 32 members of [1:46] NATO. The biggest contributor is, of course, the United States. So main objectives, number one, [1:50] spending. This has been ramped up to what Mark Reuter, the NATO Secretary General, has called [1:57] staggering levels in Europe and Canada. He said money will be a big issue in Ankara and the upcoming [2:05] NATO summit. At the 2025 NATO summit in The Hague, this is one of the reasons for that, the allies made [2:11] a commitment to invest 5% of GDP annually on core defence requirements and defence and security related [2:18] spending by 2035. This is under pressure from the US President Donald Trump, who basically said NATO [2:22] was not spending enough money and the US was no longer willing to fit the bill. They all had to [2:27] come up and pay up to 5% of GDP. Some countries have said they will. Some countries are still [2:32] a little bit reluctant to do that. Second point on the agenda is, of course, the war in Ukraine. [2:39] Mark Reuter saying NATO is doing everything it possibly can to back the Ukrainians, to keep it strong. [2:44] Sweden's foreign minister Maria Malma, a stern guard said that there were still Russian ships travelling [2:53] through the Baltic Sea. And this was something that was unacceptable because these shadow ships were [3:01] bringing out illegal supplies of oil, which were being sold to boost Russians efforts in the war in [3:08] Ukraine. And the most important point, I think, on the agenda right now for them is the [3:14] blockage of the Strait of Hormuz. NATO said it's leaving the door open to a possible role for NATO [3:20] in keeping the Strait of Hormuz open. But, of course, this only once the war in Iran is over. [3:25] And that is why Donald Trump has been so irritated with NATO, because he believes that many NATO countries [3:31] should have come to help the US when Donald Trump declared war on Iran along with Israel. [3:37] Those countries saying, well, we weren't consulted about this. There was no meeting ahead of time. [3:42] That's why we don't agree with what Donald Trump has done. And we're not backing his efforts to [3:46] to declare war in Iran. [3:48] And now, Philip, what's going on with these US troop deployments in Europe? [3:54] Well, this is also an interesting question, because remember, just last month, the Americans said they [4:03] were ordering 5000 US troops out of Germany, where they were based, because basically, Donald Trump [4:10] wasn't happy with the way the German Chancellor, Frederick Mertz, had criticized the war in Iran, [4:16] saying that Donald Trump had lost his way, basically, and that this was all a disaster. [4:21] Donald Trump didn't appreciate those comments and said, right, I'm taking 5000 of the US-based [4:27] troops out of the country. This led to a lot of bewilderment amongst NATO members. And now [4:33] Donald Trump has said he's going to send 5000 troops to Poland. So what he's basically doing [4:36] is taking the troops from Germany and putting them into Poland. Why Poland? Because Donald Trump says [4:41] he likes the Polish president, Karol Naroszky, whom he endorsed in elections last year. So that [4:48] shows, once again, that Donald Trump will react depending on who he's dealing with, whether he [4:53] likes that person or doesn't, whether that person criticized is Donald Trump. This nothing to do with [4:59] consultations on a much more widespread basis. And many of the countries, particularly two, [5:07] have criticized the Netherlands and Norway, saying that any decision to remove troops [5:12] from Germany and redeploy them in Poland should take place in a structured manner and not just on [5:17] the whim of the US president. Now, one other point, which is important to underline here, is that the [5:23] 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, which was passed in the United States, means that basically, [5:30] without an agreement from Congress, the US cannot deploy fewer than 76,000 US troops in Europe. [5:37] So if they are going to withdraw these 5,000 troops from Germany, that would go below the 76,000 because [5:44] there are about 80,000 or so deployed in Europe right now. That may explain why Donald Trump has [5:49] decided not to withdraw them back to the US, but to deploy them in Poland. So that is also something [5:55] that will be on the agenda when the talks get started today. Marco Rubio has been blowing hot and cold [6:02] about NATO. We know that he is a NATO supporter, but at the same time, he is being sent there by [6:09] Donald Trump. So we will see how all of this plays out. But remember, Donald Trump just a short while ago [6:13] was being very derogatory about NATO, calling it basically a paper tiger. [6:18] Thank you. Philip, thank you so much for that. That's our international affairs editor, Philip Turrell.