Senior NATO officials were not warned about US President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw 5,000 troops from Germany within the next 6-12 months prior to the Pentagon’s announcement on Friday.
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Questions about logistics such as from where and how the troops will be withdrawn hav risen. It’s also unclear how the decision will impact the defence alliance’s overall force posture, several sources with knowledge of the situation have told Euronews.
Trump on Saturday added that troop presence in Germany will be reduced “a lot further” than the initally announced 5,000, but the Republican president did not detail how much further or when those reductions are to be expected.
According to sources, the announcement which took senior NATO command by surprise is short on detail. Washington has not detailed whether the troops who’ll be departing Germany are from a rotation that won’t be replenished, an air squadron or if the troops are part of the core unit.
“We don’t know what are these forces is it the core of a brigade? an air squadron?” former US ambassador to NATO, Ivo Daalder told Euronews.
“There is no detail because Trump just made this number up,” another US source told Euronews.
Military planners are minimising the bearing at least 5,000 fewer US military personnel will have on Europe’s security posture, given the changing nature of warfare which relies less on soldiers and more on technology and advanced weaponry.
Moreover, several European allies, especially Germany, have substantially bolstered their own defences over the last year. NATO countries have been bracing for a potential US troop presence review, which they knew could happen at any moment.
Nonetheless, they had expected to be consulted ahead of any such decision directly impacting European security and NATO territory.
The view from NATO capitals is that an orderly, collaborative disengagement of US forces would take place, where allies fully abreast of the situation would avoid serious disruption to NATO’s deterrence capabilities.
NATO officials are drawing conclusions about the timing of the announcement after Trump took umbrage at comments made by German Chancellor Frederic Merz who said days earlier that Iran was “humiliating” the United States, and that Washington had went into war with an ill-conceived strategy.
“The figure of 5,000 is a top-line number that Trump took out of the sky because he wanted to do something demonstrative as part of his confrontation with Merz,” a US source told Euronews.
Trump posted an initial statement on Wednesday night after Merz’s remarks saying the Pentagon was “studying” how to reduce US presence in Germany, and later adding that “the Chancellor of Germany should spend more time on ending the war with Russia/Ukraine … and fixing his broken Country.”
Hours later, Chief Pentagon Spokesperson Sean Parnell told Fox News that the Secretary of War has “ordered the withdrawal of approximately 5,000 troops from Germany.”
The White House has also been furious at European allies for rejecting Trump’s calls to join in the war in Iran. Trump has taken aim and some of them, as well as the NATO alliance itself, describing it as a “paper tiger.”
“Let’s just say it was a very short space of time between Trump’s first post saying he was “studying” how to draw down troops after the feud with Merz, and then the sudden announcement,” another NATO source told Euronews.
Meanwhile, Allison Hart, a spokesperson for NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, issued a statement saying “we are working with the US to understand the details. This adjustment underscores the need for Europe to invest more in defence and take on a greater share of the responsibility for our shared security.”
US troops have been heavily embedded in Germany ever since the Cold War, and today have a deployment exceeding 36,000 active-duty personnel. Their presence is regarded as more than a legacy of the Cold War, but an important projection of US power globally.
This is a matter which Daalder says the Trump administration missed. The former ambassador says Trump is missing the bigger picture in his pursuit to penalise European allies for not joining in the war in Iran.
“He thinks he can punish allies by removing troops, but he is hurting America’s interests,” Daaldo said.
“He is just demonstrating that he doesn’t understand how America’s interests are served.”
“He believes we have troops in Europe for the sole purpose of doing others a favour,” he added, speaking to Euronews on the phone from the US. “The bottom line is that Europe is no longer first, second, third or even fourth down the list of priorities for the US.”
