WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A senior Polish defense official said Wednesday that the United States has expressed interest in potentially establishing a permanent U.S. military base in Poland.
Cezary Tomczyk, Poland's deputy defense minister, spoke to The Associated Press a day after the Polish government approved steps to allow such a U.S. permanent base in Poland, on NATO's eastern flank. He said the government's resolution about the base Tuesday is an invitation to the Americans.
“The Americans are interested in the Polish offer to place a permanent base here,” because it would be financed by both countries, Tomczyk said in an interview at the Defense Ministry in Warsaw.
When asked about the remarks, U.S. Defense Department officials in Washington said they had nothing new to announce.
Polish Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said that Poles are doing everything in their power to have such a permanent base but that “the decision will always be on the side of the Americans.”
Around 10,000 U.S. troops are typically stationed in Poland, the majority on a rotational basis.
The Polish government is hoping that thousands of U.S. troops be stationed permanently, as the U.S. rethinks its military presence in Europe, both in personnel and weaponry.
In May, the U.S. suddenly halted the deployment of 4,000 soldiers to Poland despite the Trump administration considering the country a “model ally” for reaching its NATO target for spending on defense.
U.S. President Donald Trump previously had threatened to pull troops out of Germany. That was attributed to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz criticizing the U.S. on Iran, but the reduction of troops in Poland caused widespread confusion on both sides of the Atlantic.
Tomczyk was part of a Polish team immediately dispatched to Washington for talks. He was still in the U.S. capital when Trump wrote on social media that U.S. would send an additional 5,000 troops to Poland.
Since then, the U.S. has confirmed that it is reorganizing its troop presence in Europe but has given no further clarity about which troops are going where. However, multiple statements from Polish defense officials since then indicate they believe Poland has a chance to see an increase in permanent U.S. troops.
“Sometimes a rotating model can change into a permanent model and this is always much better," Defense Minister Kosiniak-Kamysz said in mid-May.
Asked whether the Polish resolution came because the U.S. side signaled clear interest in having a permanent base in Poland, Tomczyk said Poland and the U.S. are “in a working dialogue” and that “the next step, after the two sides confirmed they are interested in this, is the official offer from the Polish state.”
“We can’t tell fortune from tea leaves," Tomczyk said. "But we are a serious state which is presenting a serious offer to the Americans, in connection with the dialogue we are having with the Americans.”
FILE - Gen. Wieslaw Kukula, the Polish armed forces chief of staff, right, and Deputy Defense Minister Cezary Tomczyk, left, discuss strengthening security of Poland's border, May, 27, 2024, in Warsaw, Poland. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — New York is celebrating the Knicks in classic style Thursday, throwing a ticker-tape parade for the team that brought home the NBA championship longed for by generations of fans.
The Knicks' victory — after a 53-year drought - has electrified New Yorkers, and Mayor Zohran Mamdani has predicted that Thursday’s parade might be one of the biggest in the city's history.
The mere fact that it's happening is historic in itself. Although the Knicks won the championship twice in the 1970s, the city didn't host a parade for them either time. Then-Mayor John Lindsay had cut down on ticker-tape extravaganzas for financial and other reasons, and he instead honored the Knicks at a 1970 reception at the mayoral mansion and a jampacked 1973 ceremony outside City Hall.
This time, the city is going all out.
“There will be performances, there will be New Yorkers, there will be the team and there will be history,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Monday.
The parade is set to start at 10 a.m. Thursday near Battery Park and head up Broadway on the skyscraper-flanked route dubbed the "Canyon of Heroes.” The procession is to end at City Hall, where the players are to get another traditional tribute: keys to the city.
Knicks legends Walt “Clyde” Frazier — a member of the ’70s champion teams — and Patrick Ewing are expected to participate in the parade, according to a person familiar with the plans, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the details before they were publicly announced. The person said Mike Breen, the Knicks’ play-by-play announcer on MSG Network, was set to emcee the City Hall ceremony.
Alicia Keys, the singer who collaborated with Jay-Z on the New York-loving 2009 hit “Empire State of Mind,” has been tapped to perform.
“How could I not?” Keys said Wednesday in a social media video that featured her on the phone with Knicks forward OG Anunoby.
Police plan to deploy 10,000 officers to secure the event, which follows ebullient but sometimes chaotic street celebrations and some violence during the Knicks' run to victory over the San Antonio Spurs.
“We want people to enjoy this moment,” Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a planning meeting Wednesday, “but public safety comes first.”
Some 650 sanitation workers have been assigned to clean up what could be tens of thousands of pounds (kilograms) of debris, if recent history is any guide.
Ticker-tape parades derive their name from the narrow strips of paper used by telegraph-era “stock ticker” machines. New York brokerage firm workers took to tossing the paper out their office windows during parades in the late 19th century, adding a swirling aerial spectacle to the festivities.
Over the years, especially up to the mid-1960s, the city rolled out ticker-tape parades to honor visiting foreign leaders, mark historic anniversaries and hail feats in aviation, war, sports, music, space travel and more.
The Knicks' parade will be the 210th, and it comes after a ticker-tape bash for the WNBA's New York Liberty in 2024.
AP Basketball Writer Brian Mahoney contributed from Southampton, New York.
Fans line up along the route before the New York Knicks' NBA championship parade Thursday, June 18, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)
Fans line up along the route before the New York Knicks' NBA championship parade Thursday, June 18, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)
A street sign reading "Champions Way" is posted along Broadway known as the "Canyon of Heroes", ahead of the New York Knicks' ticker-tape parade, Wednesday, June 17, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
A street sign reading "Champions Way" is posted along Broadway known as the "Canyon of Heroes", ahead of the New York Knicks' ticker-tape parade, Wednesday, June 17, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Banners hang above City Hall as preparations take place, Wednesday, June 17, 2026, in New York, ahead of the New York Knicks' NBA championship ticker-tape parade. (AP Photo/Alyssa Goodman)
FILE - New York Mayor John Lindsay, right, congratulates Red Holzman, coach of the New York Knicks, after presenting the city's diamond jubilee medals to Holzman and other members of the Knicks team on the steps of City Hall on May 15, 1973. Shown with the mayor are Irving Felt, board chairman of Madison Square Garden, second from left, and Willis Reed, team captain, next to Lindsay. (AP Photo/Anthony Camerano, File)
The New York Knicks celebrate with the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy after defeating the San Antonio Spurs in Game 5 of the NBA Finals basketball series, Saturday, June 13, 2026, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Darren Abate)
