European leaders are setting their countries to rely more on themselves in defence and security, after the abrupt announcement of the withdrawal of 5,000 American troops from Germany underlines the distance between Europe and the traditional alliance with the US.
More than 30 European leaders, plus Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, met in the capital of Armenia, Yerevan, for the European Political Community summit. Most downplayed the impact of troop withdrawals, but all stressed that Europe needs to step up and become more independent in defence.
The European Union was also present at the meeting with the foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, who underlined that the US decision came as a surprise, despite several discussions about a possible withdrawal of US troops. Some troops were already redeployed from Romania last October, but at the time, the US said it would coordinate with NATO allies on any future redeployment.
The Pentagon announced on Friday, and the next day, US President Donald Trump added that the plan is to withdraw even more troops. The sparse details of the decision were also underlined by Boris Pistorius, Germany’s Defence Minister, who commented that they didn’t receive “official confirmation of when and how this is supposed to happen, on what scale.” Neither the Pentagon nor Trump has further elaborated or confirmed that they plan to withdraw more than 5,000 troops.
However, the decision came on the back of a public spat with German Chancellor Friederich Merz, who said that Iran humiliated the US during peace talks and also after weeks of Trump being dissatisfied with the lukewarm answer he got from European countries for his war in Iran. Many European countries allowed either limited use of their bases or complete denial of access to their airspace, angering the mercurial Trump.
The sudden decision also took NATO by surprise, with its spokesperson Allison Hart telling AP that officials from the alliance “are working with the US to understand the details of their decision on force posture in Germany.” Overall, NATO also tried to downplay the significance of the withdrawal, with Secretary-General Mark Rutte saying that “the Europeans have heard a message.”
This article used information from The Associated Press.
