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WASHINGTON: US Vice President JD Vance said Tuesday that a deployment of 4,000 troops to Poland had been delayed rather than cancelled, but said Europe had to stand on its “own two feet.”

Last week US officials said that the deployment had been scrapped, the latest move by President Donald Trump’s administration to slash troop numbers stationed in European NATO allies.

Vance — one of the administration’s most vocal critics of Europe and a strong skeptic about US aid to Ukraine — said Trump had been urging European allies to take more of the burden for their defence since his first term.