WASHINGTON: Germany’s defense minister on Saturday said the withdrawal of American troops from Germany had been expected and that Europe needed to do more to ensure its own security.
“That US troops are withdrawing from Europe and also from Germany was to be expected,” Boris Pistorius said in a statement sent to AFP by his ministry. “We Europeans must take greater responsibility for our security,” he added.
The Pentagon on Friday announced the withdrawal of about 5,000 troops from Germany within the next year, the latest rift in transatlantic ties over the Mideast war.
The move came as US President Donald Trump announced that tariffs on cars and trucks from the European Union would increase to 25 percent next week, accusing the bloc of not complying with a trade deal signed last summer.
Trump has renewed criticism of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who said Monday that Iran was “humiliating” Washington at the negotiating table. Trump said Merz “thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about!“
On Wednesday, the American leader said Washington was “studying and reviewing the possible reduction” of US troops in Germany, and that he would decide in a “short period of time.”
HIGHLIGHTS
• Trump and Germany’s Merz in diplomatic spat over Iran war
• US president reacting to Merz remarks, Pentagon official says
• Some 35,000 US military personnel are stationed in Germany
A senior Pentagon official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said recent German rhetoric had been “inappropriate and unhelpful.”
“The president is rightly reacting to these counterproductive remarks,” the official said.
The Pentagon said the withdrawal was expected to be completed over the next six to 12 months. Germany is home to some 35,000 active-duty US military personnel, more than anywhere else in Europe.
The official said the drawdown would bring US troop levels in Europe back to roughly pre-2022 levels, before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine triggered a buildup by then-President Joe Biden.
The official also cast the decision in terms of the Trump administration’s push for Europe to become the main security provider on the continent. But it is nonetheless another potent reminder of Trump’s willingness to respond to perceived disloyalty by allies.
Reuters exclusively reported last week an internal Pentagon email that outlined options to punish NATO allies that Washington believes failed to support US operations in the war with Iran, including suspending Spain from NATO and reviewing the US position on Britain’s claim to the Falkland Islands.
GERMAN TIES FRAY
Trump has singled out Germany even as he has chastised other NATO allies for not sending their navies to help open the Strait of Hormuz during the conflict. The waterway, a chokepoint for global oil shipments, has remained virtually shut, causing market turmoil and unprecedented disruption in energy supplies.
Merz has said Germans and Europeans were not consulted before the US and Israel started attacking Iran on February 28, and that he had conveyed his skepticism about the conflict directly to Trump afterwards.
“The president has been very clear about his frustrations about our allies’ rhetoric and failure to provide support for US operations that benefit them,” the senior Pentagon official said.
Trump has long wanted to reduce the US troop presence in Germany. He pushed for a reduction at the end of his first term, but that cut was never enacted. Trump lost the election and Biden reversed the plan.
Trump’s Wednesday announcement that he was reviewing US troop levels in Germany surprised German military officials who spoke to Reuters, citing what they called constructive meetings at the Pentagon earlier in the day.
They argue that Germany has done more than other allies to support the US war in Iran, including allowing the use of bases and giving permission for overflights. Germany is also home to a huge military hospital in Landstuhl.
As part of Trump’s withdrawal decision, a brigade combat team now in Germany will be pulled out of the country and a long-range fires battalion that the Biden administration had planned to begin deploying to Germany later this year will no longer deploy, the official said.
