The President of the United States, Donald Trump, stated this Monday that he will "study" the option of establishing a U.S. military base in Lithuania. His words come a week after the Prime Minister of the Baltic country, Mindaugas Sinkevicius, expressed his willingness to facilitate the deployment of American troops on Lithuanian territory, while the possible opening of another base in Poland remains on the table, something that, according to the president himself, could also "happen."
Trump made these statements in the vicinity of the White House, before traveling to a rally in Nebraska as part of the midterm elections. When asked about the option of installing a military base in Lithuania, the Republican leader responded, "Without a doubt, we will study it" and described the authorities of the country as his "friends" and "great people."
The occupant of the White House reacted to the proposal made the previous week by the Lithuanian Prime Minister, who in an interview with Bloomberg stated that his government would "definitely accept" a U.S. base and would ensure "the best possible conditions" for its establishment.
At the same time, Poland remains another candidate within NATO to host a new Pentagon deployment. Warsaw already submitted its proposal in early June and, by mid-September, Trump stated that both parties had made "significant progress" in discussions on this issue.
For now, the Republican leader keeps both options open without conclusively committing to either. Regarding the offer from the Polish government, he has limited himself to stating that "It could happen" and emphasized that representatives from Warsaw "want it with all their might."
Nonetheless, doubts persist about the current situation between Washington and the Polish government, after the latter decided at the end of September to cancel the visit of its Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defense, Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, after receiving an "urgent request" from the United States to postpone the trip. To date, neither capital has communicated a new agenda for that meeting.