Losing US support would be"very hard" for the Baltic states, Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery, former deputy director of planning, policy and strategy at US European Command, told the newspaper."The whole idea is to make them able to defend themselves."

All three Baltic countries border Russia, and the region has already seen attacks attributed to Moscow - including attacks on critical infrastructure in the Baltic Sea, cyberattacks and sabotage, the Financial Times reports.

The newspaper also notes that the Trump administration is continuing an overall review of troop deployments and has announced its intention to reduce its presence in Europe.

Despite this, Trump met with Polish President Karol Nawrocki at the White House on Wednesday, September 3, and said he had no intention of withdrawing troops from the country.

The US currently has around 10,000 troops deployed in Poland on a rotational basis, and Trump added that he was"very pleased" with the arrangement: "If they want, we will deploy more."