NATO battalion will meet Polish residents: defence minister

The head of Poland's National Security Bureau Paweł Soloch said that the battalion, which will be stationed in Orzysz and Bemowo Piskie, both in northeastern Poland, will be officially welcomed on 13 April.

Four such battalions will be stationed in along NATO's eastern flank, including Poland, according to a decision taken at a 2016 NATO summit in Warsaw amid fears of Russian aggression following Moscow's annexation of the Crimea region of Ukraine in 2014.

“NATO troops will be stationed as of 1 April,” Polish Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz said, adding that Poles would soon find out about the soldiers' route to their destination in Poland's north east, because “they will be stopping and meeting with residents” along the way.

“We want the aspect of mutual relations between NATO troops and the community to be as visible and deep as possible,” Macierewicz said.

In mid-January, a brigade of some 3,500 US soldiers and over 1,000 vehicles, including Abrams tanks, Bradley military vehicles, and Paladin self-propelled howitzers arrived in Poland.

The decision to station the brigade in Poland was made separately to NATO's decision, taken last July, to deploy four rotating multinational battalions of some 1,000 soldiers each to the military alliance’s eastern flank. (vb)