President Karol Nawrocki says the establishment of a new permanent US Army base in Poland is now “only a question of time”, revealing that infrastructure is being selected and American specialists have already visited the country as Warsaw and Washington work on the project.
Speaking to Bloomberg Television on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, Nawrocki said preparations for the necessary infrastructure were already under way.
“The preparation of infrastructure is going on. Actually, the infrastructure is being chosen right now,” he said, adding that consultants from the United States had already visited Poland.
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Nawrocki said he hoped the project could be completed before US President Donald Trump leaves office in 2029 and repeated his support for calling the installation “Fort Trump”.
“When the work is finished by the US administration, by both governments, I think then President Trump will personally be able to participate in the inauguration of Fort Trump,” he told Bloomberg.
Asked whether unresolved issues could still obstruct the project, Nawrocki acknowledged that administrative and financial matters remained to be settled.
Nevertheless, he said he was confident that Trump’s announcement would ultimately be implemented.
“We are convinced that, as President Trump announced, it is only a question of time,” Nawrocki said.
His comments represent the clearest indication yet from the Polish presidency that discussions have moved beyond broad political support and into practical questions surrounding infrastructure.
There has, however, been no publicly announced final decision by the US government to establish the new base, and neither Washington nor Warsaw has formally identified its location.
Trump said on 17 September that “great progress” was being made towards establishing a US Army base in Poland and suggested that a location could be announced soon.
“If this happens, the location will be announced very soon,” Trump wrote, describing such a move as a historic step in the US-Polish alliance.
The conditional language is important: Trump publicly confirmed substantial progress, but stopped short of announcing a final basing agreement.
Poland had formally accelerated the process three months earlier.
On 16 June, the Council of Ministers authorised Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz to undertake negotiations and preparations for a permanent US base, including proposals covering its location, infrastructure requirements, logistics and costs.
Two days later, Kosiniak-Kamysz said US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth had responded positively to Poland’s proposal, while making clear that further negotiations would be required.
Practical talks have since continued.
On 10 September, a US delegation led by William Cappelletti Jr., a deputy assistant secretary at the Pentagon, met Polish defence officials in Warsaw as part of discussions about strengthening the American military presence.
The delegation included representatives of US European Command and the US Embassy and agreed with the Polish side to establish working groups and continue detailed consultations in Poland and the United States.
During that visit, Cappelletti was also scheduled to inspect Poznań and Powidz, including existing infrastructure, host-nation support and investments already made or planned by Poland for American forces.
That visit provides independent evidence that infrastructure and basing conditions are being examined, although the Polish Defence Ministry did not describe it as a formal final-site-selection process.
Nawrocki’s reference to unnamed US consultants therefore goes further than what Washington or Poland’s Defence Ministry has publicly documented in detail.
No public source has yet established which specific locations remain under consideration for the proposed new base.
The project also needs to be distinguished from America’s existing permanent military footprint in Poland.
The US Army established US Army Garrison Poland at Camp Kościuszko in Poznań in March 2023, becoming the Army’s first permanent garrison in the country. Permanently assigned US soldiers already serve there, including personnel connected with V Corps’ forward headquarters.
The garrison supports American military infrastructure across multiple Polish locations, including Poznań, Powidz and Świętoszów, while thousands of additional US troops continue to serve in Poland on rotational deployments.
The new proposal is therefore not about introducing the first permanent American personnel into Poland, but about expanding that presence through an additional permanent basing arrangement of the kind Warsaw has sought for years.
The phrase “Fort Trump” dates back to 2018, when then-president Andrzej Duda publicly proposed a permanent US base during Trump’s first term.
Although subsequent US decisions established a permanent Army garrison and command presence in Poland, the larger basing concept associated with the Fort Trump proposal was never implemented in its original form.
The current effort revived that objective this year.
In June, Poland’s government explicitly authorised work towards what it called a permanent US Armed Forces base, including negotiations with Washington and preparations for location, financing, infrastructure and logistical support.
Those negotiations are taking place while the Pentagon is separately reviewing the wider US military posture in Europe.
That review, launched by Hegseth in June, is examining American force deployments across the continent and is expected to present several options for future troop positioning.
Despite that broader review, both Polish and American officials have continued discussing an increased US presence in Poland.
Nawrocki’s latest comments indicate that Warsaw believes those discussions have advanced significantly.
What remains missing is the step that would turn that political confidence into a completed agreement: a formal US decision, an agreed location, the scale and composition of the force to be permanently based there, financing arrangements and an implementation timetable.
Until those are announced, “Fort Trump” remains a project under negotiation rather than an approved new US military installation.
