U.S. President Donald Trump met with Polish President Andrzej Duda in Warsaw on Thursday.

Trump said he would showcase his commitment to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in a speech and in meetings with a group of nations closest to Russia.

Trump is making the whistle-stop trip to the Polish capital en route to a G20 summit in neighbouring Germany beginning on Friday.

 Aside from shoring up the U.S. relationship with NATO allies, the speech is symbolically significant given Poland’s proximity to Russia and regional fears about Moscow’s ambitions following its 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

Poland hopes to woo Trump the businessman with new investment opportunities in Eastern Europe. </s> WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The Latest on President Donald Trump's second official visit to Europe (all times local):

President Donald Trump is calling on nations to confront North Korea's "very, very bad behavior."

Speaking in Poland Thursday, Trump called on nations to exert pressure on North Korea after this week's ballistic missile launch.

He's speaking at a joint press conference with Polish President Andrzej Duda (AHN-shay DOO-dah) in Warsaw.

President Donald Trump is praising Poland for the role it's playing in helping to defeat the Islamic State group.

Trump says Polish armed forces help train Iraqi special forces and conduct reconnaissance missions. He also notes that Polish soldiers have fought and worked side by side with American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He says Poland is also host to 5,000 U.S. troops that serve as a deterrent to destabilizing behavior by Russia.

Trump also notes that Poland is one of the few NATO members that spends 2 percent of its gross domestic product on its military defense.

Trump spoke after meeting in Warsaw with Polish President Andrzej Duda (AHN-shay DOO-dah) and before a joint news conference.

Poland's President Andrzej Duda (AHN-shay DOO-dah) is praising President Donald Trump for "thinking very seriously" about Polish security.

Duda spoke at a joint press conference with Trump in Warsaw, Poland Thursday.

Duda stressed the need for greater trans-Atlantic security and energy cooperation. He also called for long-term liquefied natural gas deliveries as Poland looks to diversify its energy sources.

The White House says President Donald Trump plans to take questions at a joint news conference with Poland's president.

Trump is meeting with Poland President Andrzej Duda (AHN-shay DOO-dah) in Warsaw to start a day of meetings and a speech in the city's Krasinski Square.

The media event will be Trump's first overseas news conference.

It will come ahead of the president's high-profile meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and follow North Korea's test of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

President Donald Trump is meeting with Polish President Andrzej Duda (AHN-zhay DOO-dah) as he begins his second foreign trip.

Trump arrived at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Poland, shortly before 9:30 a.m. local time.

The two leaders exchanged an extended handshake in front of a white marble bust of Stanislaw August Poniatowski, the last king of Poland, then posed for photos before commencing their closed-door meeting.

President Donald Trump is preparing to meet with his Polish counterpart as he kicks off a 16-hour visit to the eastern European nation.

Trump and Andrzej Duda (AHN-zhay DOO-dah) will be holding morning meetings and may hold a joint news conference later in the day.

Trump is also expected to deliver a keynote address to the Poles from Krasinski Square, the site of a monument commemorating the 1944 Warsaw Uprising against the Nazis.

He'll also be meeting with the heads of a dozen countries bordered by the Baltic, Adriatic and Black seas known as the Three Seas Initiative. The group aims to expand and modernize energy and trade with the goal of reducing the region's dependence on Russian energy.

It's Trump's second trip abroad as president.

Poland's Jewish community is expressing deep "regret" that President Donald Trump has not scheduled a visit to a memorial honoring those who fought and died in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising during his short visit to Warsaw.

The community issued a statement late Wednesday noting that all U.S. presidents and vice-presidents visiting Warsaw since 1989 had visited the monument, a tribute to the Jews who took up arms against all odds against the Nazi Germans in the Warsaw ghetto.

The statement said that, to the Jews of Poland, "this gesture meant recognition, solidarity and hope."

It added: "We deeply regret that President Donald Trump, though speaking in public barely a mile away from the monument, chose to break with that laudable tradition, alongside so many other ones."

Poland's defense minister says the Trump administration has agreed to sell Poland a new batch of medium-range Patriot missiles to upgrade the European nation's air defenses.

Minister Antoni Macierewicz made the announcement Thursday as President Donald Trump kicked off a day of meetings on defense and energy initiatives.

The purchase deal is still to be signed.

Warsaw is seeking to raise its defense potential amid Russia's heightened military activity, some of it near Poland's air space.

Macierewicz said the purchase could total some 30 billion zlotys (euro 7 billion.)

Trump is scheduled to meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda (AHN-zhay DOO-dah) Thursday, as well as with the heads of a dozen countries bordered by the Baltic, Adriatic and Black seas known as the Three Seas Initiative. </s> Chairman of the Riigikogu’s Foreign Affairs Committee, Marko Mihkelson (independent), commented U.S. president Donald Trump’s address in Warsaw saying that for the first time since he took office, the president had underlined the importance of unity in the Western world.

"For the first time during his term of office, President Trump in Warsaw gave the kind of speech in which he emphasized the importance of unity in the Western world and the need to protect our values, and called on Russia to end its destabilizing role. We will see what the messages will be tomorrow, when he will meet with the Russian head of state for the first time. All in all, Trump's speech was made at the right time and in the right place," Mihkelson wrote on social media.

The United States had demonstrated that it stands firmly behind the principle of collective defense prescribed in NATO's Article 5, Trump said on Thursday. He also pledged that the U.S. would never use force to coerce eastern and central European nations, and that it wouldn’t allow others to do it either. The ties between Europe and the U.S. were stronger than ever, Trump said. He called on Russia to stop interfering in Ukraine as well.

Trump visited Warsaw on Thursday, where he participated in a meeting of the Three Seas Initiative that brought together heads of state from Austria, Bulgaria, Estonia , Croatia, Lithuania , Latvia , Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, and Hungary.

Trump is scheduled to meet with Russian president Vladimir Putin at a meeting of G20 leaders in Hamburg on Friday. </s> Trump arrived on Wednesday in Warsaw where the White House said he would showcase his commitment to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in a speech and in meetings with a group of nations closest to Russia on his way to the G20 summit in Germany on Friday and Saturday.

"This is the second foreign visit by president Trump and it starts in Poland. This shows we are a country that matters and it strengthens our position in the European Union," Duda said on public radio. </s> [The stream is slated to start at 04:35 a.m. ET. Please refresh the page if you do not see a player above at that time.]

Warsaw, Poland, marks the first stop on U.S. President Donald Trump's European visit. Trump will give a speech in the central European capital and is expected to touch on the issues of bilateral trade agreements, immigration and national security. His address, likely to be monitored by the wider European community, will set his agenda for the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, coming later this week. </s> The Kremlin has responded to Poland’s Monday offer to the United States in order for the latter to have a permanent military presence in the European country. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Monday the move would undermine stability on the continent.

"It depends what kind of base it will be. In general, when we noticed the gradual expansion of NATO's military infrastructure towards our borders, the immediate approach of NATO's military structure to our borders does not in any way contribute to security and stability on the continent, on the contrary, these expansionist actions, of course, inevitably lead to counter-measures on the Russian side in order to balance the parity that breaks each time," Peskov said, Sputnik News reported.

As a member of NATO, the U.S. through the Atlantic Resolve demonstrates its commitment to the security of NATO allies — Poland being one. The operation involves conducting continuous, enhanced multinational training and security cooperation activities with allies and partners in Eastern Europe. This affords U.S. troops to be present in Poland, although currently, they rotate between Poland and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

According to Russia’s largest news agency, TASS, the U.S.’ armored brigade with regard to Atlantic Resolve consists about 3,500 troops, 400 track vehicles, 900 military vehicles, including 87 Abrams tanks and 18 Paladin 155mm self-propelled howitzers.

On May 24, the U.S. Senate asked “the Secretary of Defense to report on the feasibility and advisability of permanently stationing a U.S. Army brigade combat team in Poland.”

Poland offered up to $2 billion to the U.S. to establish a military base permanently, quoting comments “U.S. President Donald Trump made clear in his landmark Warsaw address.” The address being referred to in a proposal from Poland's Ministry of National Defence was of the trip Trump made when he visited the country in July 2017.

“This continent no longer confronts the specter of communism. But today we’re in the West, and we have to say there are dire threats to our security and to our way of life. You see what’s happening out there. They are threats. We will confront them. We will win. But they are threats,” the president said.

Vladimir Dzhabarov, first deputy head of the Russian Federation Council’s Foreign Affairs Committee, told RBC business portal that “Poland becomes the object of a retaliatory strike by placing the base.” Dzhabarov, who is a senator, warned such a move “makes Poland one of the main targets in case of a possible conflict.”

“The closer they get to NATO, the more endangered Poland’s very existence becomes,” Dzhabarov told the publication (in Russian), the Moscow Times reported.

During his visit to Poland on Monday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg again reiterated his call for Moscow to accept responsibility for the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 over Ukraine, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Russia was accused by the Netherlands and Australia for the tragedy which killed all 298 passengers onboard. Stoltenberg said this “more assertive” Russia is one of NATO’s biggest security challenges.

"I agree with the Dutch government, which calls on Russia to take responsibility for the crash," Stoltenberg said, calling the tragedy a “direct consequence” of Russian aggression towards Ukraine. </s> WARSAW (Reuters) - The United States is serious about the security of its ally Poland, Polish President Andrzej Duda said on Wednesday after meeting U.S. President Donald Trump in Warsaw.

"We see ourselves as loyal partners who cooperate on a number of issues, among others on security," Duda told a joint news conference with Trump in Warsaw's Royal Castle.

 "I have a feeling that the United States is serious about Poland's security."

 Poland hosts some 900 U.S. troops as part of a rotating NATO force in eastern Europe to counter potential threats from Russia.

 

 (Reporting by Marcin Goclowski and Justyna Pawlak; editing by Andrew Roche) </s> WARSAW, Poland (AP) — American soldiers rolled into Poland on Thursday, fulfilling a dream some Poles have had since the fall of communism in 1989 to have U.S. troops on their soil as a deterrent against Russia.

Some people waved and held up American flags as U.S. troops in tanks and other vehicles crossed into southwestern Poland from Germany and headed toward the town of Zagan, where they will be based. Poland’s prime minister and defense minister will welcome them in an official ceremony Saturday.

“This is the fulfilment of a dream,” said Michal Baranowski, director of the German Marshall Fund think tank in Warsaw. “And this is not just a symbolic presence but one with a real capability.”

U.S. and other Western nations have carried out exercises on NATO’s eastern flank in past years, but the new deployment — which includes some 3,500 U.S. troops — marks the first-ever continuous deployment to the region by a NATO ally.

It is part of a larger commitment by President Barack Obama to protect a region that grew deeply nervous when Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and then began backing separatist rebels in Ukraine’s east.

There are fears, however, that the enhanced security could eventually be undermined by the pro-Kremlin views of President-elect Donald Trump.

Poland and the Baltic states also feel threatened by Russia’s recent deployment of nuclear-capable Iskander missiles in Kaliningrad, the Russian territory wedged between Poland and Lithuania.

But Russia says it’s the one who is threatened.

“These actions threaten our interests, our security,” President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday. “Especially as it concerns a third party building up its military presence near our borders. It’s not even a European state.”

Worries about the permanence of the new U.S. security commitments are rooted in a tragic national history in which Poland has often lost out in deals made by the great powers.

Poles still feel betrayed by Obama’s “reset” with Russia early on in his administration, which involved abandoning plans for a major U.S. missile defense system in Poland and replacing it with plans for a less ambitious system, still not in place.

“All recent U.S. presidents have thought there can be a grand bargain with Russia,” said Marcin Zaborowski, a senior associate at Visegrad Insight, an analytic journal on Central Europe. “Trump has a proclivity to make deals, and Central and Eastern Europe have reason to worry about that.”

Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski expressed hope this week that any new effort at reconciliation with Russia “does not happen at our expense.”

The armored brigade combat team arriving in Poland hails from Fort Carson, Colorado. The troops arrived last week in Germany and are gathering in Poland before units will fan out across seven countries from Estonia to Bulgaria. A headquarters unit will be stationed in Germany. After nine months they will be replaced by another unit.

In a separate but related mission, NATO will also deploy four battalions to its eastern flank later this year, one each to Poland and the three Baltic states. The U.S. will also lead one of those battalions.

Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report.

 Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. </s> U.S. President Donald Trump delivers a speech in Krasinski Square, back dropped by the monument commemorating the 1944 Warsaw Uprising against the Nazis, in Warsaw, Poland, Thursday, July 6, 2017. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz)

Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner arrive for the G-20 summit in Hamburg, northern Germany, Thursday, July 6, 2017. The leaders of the group of 20 meet July 7 and 8.

Ivanka Trump arrives with her husband Jared Kushner, senior advisor of President Donald Trump, for U.S. President Donald Trump's speech in Krasinski Square, in Warsaw, Poland, Thursday, July 6, 2017.

U.S. President Donald Trump delivers a speech in Krasinski Square, back dropped by the monument commemorating the 1944 Warsaw Uprising against the Nazis, in Warsaw, Poland, Thursday, July 6, 2017.

FILE - In this Aug 12, 2015 picture two tourists visit the monument to the Jews who fought and died in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943 in Warsaw, Poland. Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner, senior advisor of President Donald Trump visited the Warsaw 1943 Ghetto Heroes Memorial, Thursday, July 6, 2017.

U.S. President Donald Trump made his emotional address to the Poles speaking at the foot of the metal-and-stone Monument to the Warsaw Uprising, a heroic but failed 1944 uprising by Poland's clandestine Home Army against the occupying Nazi Germans.

The monument stands near the still-existing entry into the city's sewer system that the insurgents and civilians used to flee the area as it was being overtaken by the Nazis. At least 150,000 Poles — both fighters and civilians — died in the fierce street fighting in the uprising.

It was unveiled on Aug. 1, 1989, on the 45th anniversary of the start of the uprising. It shows some fighters entering the sewer opening, while others are fleeing a wall that is collapsing after an explosion. It is a site of great emotions and pride for Poles.

In 1994, during the 50th anniversary observances, German President Roman Herzog apologized at the site for Germany's World War II crimes.

As Trump's tight schedule during the brief visit Thursday to Warsaw did not include another key memorial of a dramatic struggle, the Monument to the Warsaw Ghetto Heroes, Ivanka Trump was there and laid flowers in homage to the fighters.

Unveiled on April 19, 1948, on the fifth anniversary of the start of the uprising, the massive granite-and-metal memorial honors hundreds of Jewish fighters who on April 19, 1943, began their struggle as the Nazis were liquidating the ghetto and transporting thousands of its remaining residents to the Treblinka death camp. The monument's metal figures show the determination of the fighters.

The fighters took up arms, choosing to die in an overwhelmingly lopsided battle. Only a handful of them managed to escape the burning ghetto.

The memorial stands in the center of the former ghetto, near where the fighting began.

Some 400,000 Jews perished in the Warsaw ghetto that the Nazis set up in 1940.

Ivanka Trump also visited the nearby new POLIN museum of the history of Poland's Jews.
U.S. President Donald Trump visits Warsaw, where he speaks of defeating radical Islamist terrorism, pledges to uphold the North Atlantic Treaty, and urges Russia to "join the community of responsible nations."