Fifty-five percent of respondents answered in the affirmative when asked if they were in favour of a permanent US military base being set up in Poland, the defence ministry said, citing a survey by pollster Kantar Polska.
Twenty-seven percent opposed the plan, while 18 percent were undecided, the ministry said the poll found.
The study was carried out by from October 12 to 17 on a representative sample of 1,067 adult respondents using the computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) method, according to the Polish defence ministry.
'Fort Trump'
Defence Minister Mariusz Błaszczak told public broadcaster TVP Info on Saturday that the Polish government was making every effort to bring about the establishment of a permanent US army base in the country, a plan dubbed “Fort Trump” and aiming to enhance Poland’s security.
Błaszczak was on Sunday scheduled to fly to the United States for talks the next day with officials including President Donald Trump’s National Security Adviser John Bolton about strengthening bilateral cooperation and the plan for a permanent US military base in Poland.
Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz told NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg on Monday that a strengthened US military presence in Poland would help "strengthen the security of our country, of the entire region and of the entire North Atlantic Alliance."
Czaputowicz said at a conference in Warsaw on Wednesday that a US military presence was essential to ensuring security in Europe.
Decision next year?
Polish President Andrzej Duda suggested in a media interview this month that a possible new permanent US military base in Poland could effectively be a done deal.
Poland already hosts US troops on a rotating basis as part of NATO, and the Polish section of a US missile defence shield over Europe is being built by the Americans at Redzikowo in the north of the country.
Senior Polish parliamentarian Adam Bielan said last month that a decision on a possible new permanent US troop presence in Poland was likely to be made next year.
Błażej Spychalski, a spokesman for Polish President Andrzej Duda, said at the end of September that Warsaw wanted to spend about USD 2 billion to build infrastructure for American soldiers in Poland, including “housing, as well as educational and medical facilities.”
The prime ministers of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia in June welcomed the idea of a permanent US military base being established in Poland, public broadcaster Polish Radio reported at the time.
Amid fears of Russian aggression following Moscow's annexation of the Crimea region of Ukraine in 2014, NATO decided at a Warsaw summit in July 2016 to deploy four rotating multinational battalions to Poland and the three Baltic states.
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Source: PAP, TVP Info