BACKGROUND PRESS CALL
BY SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS
ON THE VISIT OF PRESIDENT DUDA OF THE REPUBLIC OF POLAND
Via Teleconference
1:07 P.M. EDT
PRESS OFFICER: Good afternoon. Thank you very much for joining us this afternoon for this background call previewing the visit of President Duda of Poland. To reiterate, the outline for today’s call: It will be on background, attributable to senior administration officials. I will note that there’s a change to the embargo. This call is embargoed until 3:00 p.m. today.
I will introduce our speakers, and then I’ll turn to each one of them to provide a few remarks at the top, and then we’ll move to Q&A. Our speakers today are [senior administration officials]. With that, I’ll turn to my colleague to kick us off.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Good afternoon. As you know, we have a visit tomorrow from Polish President Duda. He will be meeting with President Trump in the White House and with a high-level delegation, primarily on matters of security. We’re looking to deepen the U.S.-Polish security partnership, consistent with NATO goals and NATO planning. You will note that this is part of a pattern of high-level engagement that the President has undertaken this year with leaders from Central Europe.
This is an important area, and we want to underscore our commitment to the defense of the region and to our shared relationship in NATO and shared values. Poland is a particularly important part of this, as they have indicated their willingness to shoulder a greater share of the burden for their own security and for the security of the region. Their defense spending is over the 2 percent NATO goal, and they have been a key partner in encouraging other allies to do so.
This is a historic meeting, coming as it does 80 years since the beginning of the Second World War, in which Poland was the first country to undergo aggression from Germany. It’s 30 years after the end of the communist rule in Poland, and 20 years since Poland has been a member of NATO. So we’re celebrating many different anniversaries.
So with that, I will end my preparatory remarks and turn it over to [senior administration official].
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: No, I think that that’s about right. Again, we’re just here to reaffirm our commitment to the region and the region’s security, but we also are talking about a broader strategic relationship across many fronts. Defense is obviously the most important and the most prolific one, but we also want to highlight our expanded trade relationships; also affirm our commitment to the region’s energy security and expanding our energy partnerships, as well; as well as people-to-people contacts and cultural relations, and things on that front, as well.
So, really, a comprehensive look at our relationship will be discussed at this meeting tomorrow.
PRESS OFFICER: With that, we’ll turn to [senior administration official].
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Okay, thank you. So, yes, I’m happy to be here to talk about the defense relationship with Poland. Obviously, Poland, as a country, is a very strong ally with us at NATO, and they have stood with us around the globe, including in Iraq and Afghanistan, over the years. And our relationship with Poland has helped to ensure peace and security not only in Europe, but around the world.
This meeting between the Presidents is a great opportunity for us to highlight our deepening military-to-military relationship and our mutual commitment to NATO and its priorities. And as everybody, I think, is aware, the Secretary of Defense -- Acting Secretary of Defense Shanahan will host his Polish counterpart today, in about 45 minutes, for a bilateral meeting here in the Pentagon. So we’re looking forward to that as well.
PRESS OFFICER: Thank you. With that, moderator, we’re ready to move to Q&A.
Q Patrick Tucker from Defense One. Thank you everybody. A sort of defense question. Polish officials, beginning last week, have said that they've reached a deal with the White House on the size of a potential troop commitment, in terms of U.S. troops to Poland. I know that they were looking for something on par to like a brigade. Can you tell us what is the change that’s going to be in the U.S. military troop presence in Poland? Has an agreement been formally reached on that? How big is it? And what are some of the other aspects of additional equipment or training, or things that are going to Poland that have been agreed to?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: So I think what you'll see tomorrow -- there will be a significant announcement made on this front tomorrow at the White House. And we’re really looking forward to announcing this new military -- new facet of our military-to-military relationship. We believe it’s going to significantly enhance our military-to-military relationship but also enhance the defense and deterrence posture in Europe as it relates -- and our commitment to NATO.
So I’m not going to go into the details, but you’ll have to wait for the significant announcement tomorrow.
Q Hi. This is Jeff Schogol with Task & Purpose. Is there any legal agreement that prohibits the United States from permanently stationing troops in Poland, as opposed to having troops rotate in? I think it’s referred to as the “founding agreement” with Russia. Thank you.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Okay. Thank you for your question. So the NATO-Russia Founding Act is not a treaty, first of all; it’s a political agreement. And tomorrow's announcement will be completely consistent with the commitments we’ve made at NATO. And so I think I’ll just leave it at that.
But as far as treaty agreements, we think that this announcement tomorrow will actually enhance our posture, our commitment to NATO and to the North Atlantic Treaty.
Q Hi there. It’s Paul Sonne from the Washington Post. I was just wondering: Is it accurate to say that there will not be a Fort Trump, as was floated by the Polish leader last time he was here in town? And is it also accurate to say that there will not be any permanent Polish -- sorry, permanent American military bases or anything like that set up in Poland?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: From the NSC, I would once again say you’re going to have to wait until tomorrow for the full details that will be announced at that time, and they will pertain to the future of the U.S.-Polish defense relationship. But we don't want to steal the President’s thunder for that, and I think you should look forward to hearing what he has to say.
Q Yeah, thanks. Hey. Aaron Mehta with Defense News. I was wondering if you’re expecting a formal request from Poland to buy the F-35 during this trip and whether you expect that request would be cleared from this administration. Thanks.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Okay, thank you. So, yeah, I was actually honored to be able to accompany Minister Błaszczak yesterday down to Eglin Air Force Base to look at the F-35 training command down there. As -- I think it’s public by now that they have already submitted a letter of request for the F-35, and we’re working through our formal military sales process right now to get them an offer, essentially.
So that’s sort of where we are. And I think that’s basically the facts of where we are on the F-35 in Poland right now.
Q Hi, yes, this is Carla Babb with Voice of America. I just want to go back to the troop commitment here. You said that there's a significant announcement but then no other details to that. So I'm trying to see why exactly we're on this call. Is there going to be an increase in troops? Or what -- can you give us any more details other than "there's going to be a significant announcement"?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Details will be available tomorrow. At this time, we're not going to give anything else out on this particular issue. What we want to do is discuss the fact that there is a very important presidential visit that is happening tomorrow, and it's going to be dealing with a number of issues beyond the significant announcement on the defense relationship.
Q Yes. Hi, this (inaudible) with (inaudible) Media. On the energy security front, I was wondering if we should expect anything new on U.S. LNG exports to Poland and the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine to Europe? Thank you.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: This will be a subject for discussion. We are working hard with the government of Poland and with other governments in the Central European region on energy security and on diversification of energy supplies. So we do expect to be making progress on this front as well.
Q Hi, this is Jeff Schogol with Task & Purpose again. I know you can't give details of what the President is going to announce tomorrow, but will it be accurate to characterize that more troops are going to Poland, or something that we can describe the type of announcement that will be announced tomorrow?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I'm not going to go into details on the announcement tomorrow. It will be a significant announcement on the future of the security partnership.
Q Yeah, thanks. Aaron Mehta with Defense News again. Just more broadly speaking, aside from the F-35, are you expecting any arms sales announcements or any sort of package agreement similar to the big Saudi package that was announced a couple years ago?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: This is [senior administration official] at DOD. I don't -- I'm not tracking anything like that at this time, so -- but I would defer to the White House.
Q This is Tom Squitieri with Talk Media News. I'd like to follow up on Jeff Schogol's first question to get some clarity. I want to make sure I understood you all saying that there's no treaty or no legislative blocking -- blockage -- to have its permanent, expanded U.S. presence in Poland. I'm not asking you to confirm if that's what's going to happen, I'm just trying to understand that the agreement that Jeff refered to between the United States and Russia does not forbid a permanent U.S. facility in Poland.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Hi. So, yeah, I'll try to make sure that my answer is clear. So the first part of it is that the NATO-Russia Founding Act is not a treaty, it's a political commitment. And the second part is that tomorrow's announcement will be completely consistent with the commitments we've made at NATO, and that includes the NATO-Russia Founding Act. Over.
Q Hi, yes. This is Carla Babb with Voice of America again. I just want to go back to what we were talking about with this significant announcement. So in response to a question on the troop commitment, [senior administration official], I believe it was you that said that it would be made on this tomorrow. And then on a question with Fort Trump, you said you're going to have to wait until tomorrow. So can we at least say that the announcement will be in concern with troop commitments and Fort Trump?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: What I said is that the announcements tomorrow will be about the future state of our security cooperation and our defense relationships. I did not mention any of the other things. For specifics, I'm going to have to ask you to be patient and wait until then.
Q Thanks. Patrick Tucker, again, with Defense One. Is there a discussion at all about basing of missiles or potentially nuclear arms? Is that something that had been spoken a little bit about? Is that something that we can expect tomorrow, or is that a topic of discussion between the two leaders?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Hi, this is [senior administration official] from DOD again. No, there are no discussions on those. Thank you.
Q Hi, this is Jeff Schogol with Task & Purpose again. I'm just wondering if you can talk about the strategic importance of Kaliningrad and whether the Russians have moved S-400 missiles there. Thank you.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Hi, this is [senior administration official] again. I'm sorry, I think that’s probably a little bit beyond the scope of this call so I'm going to have to -- I'm going to have to demur on that one.
Q Hey, sorry. It's Carla Babb with VOA. And I'm sorry about this. The way of doing this is really hard because we don’t have any follow-up. But again -- unless they want to leave my mic open.
Again, I have five minutes into the call, someone -- and I didn’t write down names because this is a background briefing -- I have, in quotations, "a significant announcement made on this" in response to a Washington Post question about White House troop commitment. So my story is going to focus on there's going to be a significant announcement on White House -- on the troop commitment to Poland.
And so -- but your response was what you had said later now, which was on the security issue -- which was more broad and more vague. But, again, so could somebody just tell me, in what was said five minutes into the briefing, was that a misspeak -- "a significant announcement made on this"? "This" being referring to a troop commitment to Poland. Or if misspoke, just let me know. But if not, that’s what I think the four left on this call are going to focus on.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: As we have said previously, we're not going to go into details as to what will be in the announcement tomorrow because we don’t want to preempt our bosses on that. So you can write about that there will be a significant announcement tomorrow. It will involve our security relationship and force posture, but we're not going to provide any details today.
Q Hi, it's Margaret Talev at Bloomberg. I won't beat a dead horse, but I also want to know what's going to happen tomorrow. But can you tell us, is the President going to make any commitment or announcement about plans to travel to Poland himself later this year, tomorrow? Or could you do that for us now?
And also, will he seek to tie any of those commitments that are going to be announced tomorrow to any agreement by Duda and the Polish government on rule of law, human rights issues, free press -- any of those kinds of concerns about governance or democratic governance? Thanks.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: To answer your second question first, what is being announced tomorrow is self-contained. Certainly the discussions on the rule of law, human rights issues that you mention are part of the dialogue between the Presidents but not captured in what they have agreed, but will be continuing subjects for discussion.
And the first part of the question, I'm sorry? Oh, was the possibility of travel. I'm not in a position to make any announcement about that at this point.
Q Hi. It's Demetri Sevastopulo at Financial Times. Two questions. First is: What is the state of negotiations between the U.S. and Poland for what Poland does with Huawei in its future 5G networks?
And secondly, I missed the start of the call. Is there going to be a kind of a joint statement from the President tomorrow? Or what's the format? Thank you.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: The issue of communications security is something that the Presidents will discuss tomorrow and there will be some kind of joint statement issued.
Q Hi, this is Elizabeth McLaughlin at ABC News. I was wondering if you guys could possibly do this call again tomorrow after the announcement is made so that we can actually ask some questions and get into the details about what the announcement will entail tomorrow.
PRESS OFFICER: I will say that you should have received a media advisory about a press conference that will take place with the Presidents tomorrow, and I expect it will addressed at that time.
Okay. With that, we're ready to conclude.
END 1:29 P.M. EDT
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