BRUSSELS, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Poland does not want to have nuclear warheads on its territory, Deputy Defence Minister Pawel Zalewski said on Thursday.
"No — that is what I would like to say very clearly and openly. Poland does not want to have nuclear warheads on its territory," Zalewski told reporters when asked whether future U.S. military presence in Poland could include nuclear capability.
"We want to participate in NATO nuclear deterrence, which does not mean having nuclear warheads on our territory," Zalewski said at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
He added that Poland was interested in increasing the permanent U.S. military presence under Washington's Force Posture Review and referenced U.S. President Donald Trump's remarks earlier this year on the possibility of sending additional troops to Poland.
Washington announced a six-month review of U.S. troop deployments in Europe in June. According to a document seen by Reuters it will create at least four sets of options for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth by November 6, well ahead of a December deadline.
"We treat President Trump's decision as a tool to improve European security, aligned with the Pentagon's concept of NATO 3.0. It means that it's due to Europeans to defend conventionally, but the U.S. maintains an extremely important role to support European armed forces," he said.
"Of course the starting point is a message sent to the public opinion by President Trump about sending 5,000 American soldiers to Poland on a permanent basis," he added.
In May, Trump surprised NATO allies by pledging to send an additional 5,000 troops to Poland.
(Reporting by Lili Bayer in Brussels; Writing by Karol Badohal in Warsaw; Editing by Jan Harvey and Hugh Lawson)
