US, Polish leaders meeting at White House with elections in sight

WARSAW: US President Donald Trump was to hold talks with Polish President Andrzej Duda at the White House on Wednesday, a controversial meeting that comes just four days ahead of an election in Poland.

Duda, a populist Trump ally, is hoping for a pre-election windfall from the meeting while the US president is seeking to show that the pandemic, which has damaged his own re-election chances, is abating.

The Oval Office meeting is Trump's first with a foreign leader since the pandemic hit in March Voters in Poland are to go to the polls on Sunday to decide whether to give Duda a second term in office and the timing of the visit has come in for criticism from his opponents.

Trump and Duda are to give a joint press conference in the gardens of the White House following the third Oval Office meeting between the two men.

The central expectation on the Polish side is a boost in US military assistance for Poland -- a constant demand from Warsaw, particularly in the wake of Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Following Trump's announcement of plans to reduce US troop numbers in Germany, there has been speculation that some of them could be diverted to Poland.

According to the Polish newspaper Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, 30 US F-16 fighter jets stationed in Germany could be moved to Poland along with some 2,000 troops.

A senior US official cautioned, however, that it would be "premature" to talk about troop deployment in terms of "any specific number to any specific location."

Poland will also have to tread carefully so as not to be seen to be taking advantage of a fellow NATO ally.

NATO promised Russia in 1997 not to set up permanent bases in the former eastern bloc. As tensions have grown however, the alliance has rotated troops through front-line countries.

'Fort Trump'

Even though the US troops would still be rotated under any scenario, Polish officials have raised the prospect of a more permanent US presence -- perhaps in a facility paid for by Warsaw dubbed "Fort Trump."

German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer alluded to the agreement with Russia in an interview to the Atlantic Council on Wednesday.

"If for example US troops in Europe are moved to Poland, this must be done with the NATO-Russia pact in mind," Kramp-Karrenbauer said. "We must not lose sight of this point."

Under fire for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the nationwide protests for racial justice, Trump is facing a tough re-election battle.

A New York Times/Siena College poll published on Wednesday had his Democratic opponent Joe Biden with a 14-point lead among registered voters -- 50 percent to 36 percent.

The hastily arranged visit is expected to be accompanied by protests by gay rights campaigners against Duda, a right-winger who has railed against "LGBT ideology," comparing it to communism.

Duda, who is backed by the governing Law and Justice party, is the current frontrunner but the centrist europhile opposition candidate Rafal Trzaskowski has been catching up in the polls.

US Representative Marcy Kaptur, a Democrat from Ohio who co-chairs the Congressional Poland Caucus, condemned the visit.

"As a Polish-American and someone who deeply values the US-Poland relationship, I am troubled by President Trump's inappropriate efforts to insert himself into Polish domestic politics and boost President Duda's reelection with a White House visit," Kaptur said in a statement.

"Unfortunately, President Trump's invitation is not surprising given his favorability toward strongmen and those who undermine democratic institutions," Kaptur said.

The timing of the visit was also criticized by Molly Montgomery of the Brookings think tank in Washington.

"No US president should meet a foreign leader -- friend or foe -- mere days before she or he stands for election," Montgomery said.

"To do so undermines Poland's democratic processes and our own values."