"Trump Friend" Polish President "to meet in a few weeks"

Polish President Andrzej Duda says he and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump will meet in the U.S. in the coming weeks.

In a post on X (X) on the 11th local time, Duda said, "Tonight, I congratulated you on your historic return and your decisive presidential victory over the phone."

President Duda explained to his own media that Trump called to congratulate Poland's Independence Day (November 11) and thanked Polish Americans for supporting him.

When the results of the U.S. presidential election came out on the 6th, he told X, "Congratulations President Donald Trump! You did it!" he wrote, thanking his Polish counterparts for voting in the U.S.

Duda, who has been in office for 10 years since 2015, is one of the few European leaders to support Trump even before the U.S. presidential election.

A former member of the nationalist right-wing Law and Justice Party (PiS), he was evaluated as successful in diplomacy with the U.S., focusing on security, while feuding with the European Union (EU) during the first Trump administration.

He also said in 2020 that he would name his U.S. military base "Fort Trump" after being promised by then-President Trump to redeploy some U.S. troops stationed in Germany to the country.

Some expect President Duda to act as a mediator between the U.S. and the EU over support for Ukraine and strengthening the NATO alliance, Europe's biggest pending issue.

Poland will take over the EU presidency from Hungary for a half-year term in January next year.

Contrary to President-elect Trump's powerful ally and pro-Russian Hungarian Prime Minister Orban Viktor, Duda says the West should continue to support Ukraine.

President Duda visited New York in April, where he proposed to Trump that NATO members raise their defense spending target to 3% of GDP and persuaded Ukraine not to give up.

"The idea that Europe can defend itself today is a pipe dream," he said in his Independence Day speech, referring to U.S. President Woodrow Wilson's 14 peace principles, which guaranteed Poland's status as an independent country at the end of World War I in 1918.

"During the Cold War, all NATO members spent more than 3% of their GDP on defense, so Russia could not dare attack the West," he said, stressing that "Europe's own military power, economic power, and the U.S. should be strong with ironclad support and cooperation."