US will not lower troop numbers in eastern Europe, Polish president says

WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland's president said on Tuesday that U.S. officials had assured him that Washington did not intend to lower troop numbers in eastern Europe, as he gave a statement to reporters after meeting Donald Trump's Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg.

Old certainties about Washington's role in ensuring European security have been upended over the past week, and U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told a press conference in Poland that NATO allies could not assume the U.S would be present in Europe forever.

However, after meetings with Kellogg on Tuesday and Hegseth on Friday, President Andrzej Duda sought to reassure Poles about Washington's plans.

"We have been assured... that there are absolutely no American intentions to reduce activity here in our part of Europe, especially in terms of security, reducing the number of American soldiers," he told reporters.

Kellogg will travel to Ukraine to meet President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv following his visit to Poland.

(This story has been refiled to fix the date of the meeting to Tuesday, from Monday, in paragraphs 1 and 3)

(Reporting by Alan Charlish, Barbara Erling, Editing by William Maclean and Deepa Babington)

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