The European Reassurance Initiative highlighted a meeting between Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz in Brussels today, Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said.
In a statement summarizing the meeting between the two defense leaders, Cook said Carter thanked Macierewicz for Poland's demonstration of leadership within NATO by meeting its commitment at the alliance’s last summit to spend 2 percent of its gross domestic product on defense and for its plans for a robust defense modernization program.
Persistent U.S. Presence in Poland
Carter and Macierewicz discussed the U.S. plan to quadruple funding for the European Reassurance Initiative, which calls for the persistent, rotational presence of U.S. forces in Poland in support of Operation Atlantic Resolve, Cook said.
They also discussed the need for NATO to address the full spectrum of threats in both the east and the south, the press secretary said, as well as potential Polish contributions to the campaign to counter the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. In addition, he said, they talked about the importance of the U.S.-Poland bilateral defense relationship.
Carter is in Brussels to attend a meeting of NATO defense ministers and to discuss the counter-ISIL campaign with defense ministers of countries involved in that effort.