President Donald Trump said on Saturday (local time) that the United States (US) will significantly reduce its troops in Germany, even as Pentagon maintained that around 5,000 troops will be pulled out of the European nation.
"We’re going to cut way down. And we’re cutting a lot further than 5,000," the Republican leader told reporters before boarding the Air Force One in Florida.
Trump's recent remarks comes as the relationship between the US and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) deteriorates over the American president's stance on the Iran war. Trump has a vocal critic of the NATO and threatened pull out of the alliance that was formed in 1949 against the erstwhile Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR).
Labelling the alliance as 'paper tiger', Trump has maintained that he received no support from the NATO on Iran war, which started on February 28. It is worth noting that many of the NATO countries have openly questioned US actions against Iran, refusing to support Washington.
Like other NATO nations, Germany, which has many critical American bases, has also criticised US actions, with Chancellor Friedrich Merz saying the US was being “humiliated” by the Iranian leadership. "An entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership, especially by these so-called Revolutionary Guards," he said last week, questioning the American strategy.
His remarks didn't go well with the US with the Pentagon declaring on Friday that it would pull out 5,000 of its 36,000 troops from Germany, adding that the withdrawal will take place in the next six to 12 months; although NATO said it is working with Washington to find out the details about the decision. It should be mentioned here that the US had increased the number of troops in Germany after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius, though, has said that the withdrawal was "foreseeable". "It was anticipated that the U.S. might withdraw troops from Europe, including Germany," he said in a statement on Saturday. "If we are to remain transatlantic, we must strengthen the European pillar within NATO."
