Trump authorizes strategy to withdraw 9,500 U.S. forces from Germany

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has actually picked a choice for withdrawing U.S. military workers from Germany and redeploying those forces in other places, the Pentagon stated in a declaration Tuesday night.

“The Secretary of Defense and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff briefed the President yesterday on plans to redeploy 9,500 troops from Germany. The proposal that was approved not only meets the President’s directive, it will also enhance Russian deterrence, strengthen NATO, reassure Allies, improve U.S. strategic flexibility and U.S. European Command’s operational flexibility, and take care of our service members and their families,” Pentagon representative Jonathan Hoffman stated Tuesday.

“Pentagon leaders look forward to briefing this plan to the congressional defense committees in the coming weeks, followed by consultations with NATO allies on the way forward,” Hoffman included.

The motion of 9,500 U.S. service members from Germany resurfaces claims made by the Trump administration that the NATO ally has actually been “delinquent in their payments” to NATO.

Trump has actually often dressed down NATO equivalents and threatened to minimize U.S. military assistance if allies do not increase costs. Last year while in London, Trump singled out German Chancellor Angela Merkel for not fulfilling the 2% of GDP costs objective embeded in 2014.

“So we’re paying 4 to 4.3% when Germany’s paying 1 to 1.2%, at max 1.2%, of a much smaller GDP. That’s not fair,” Trump stated in December. According to the NATO figures, the U.S. invests less than Trump kept in mind, 3.42% of GDP on defense, while Germany now invests 1.38%, which is a boost of about 11% from 2018.

Read more:  Here’s what each NATO nation contributes economically to the world’s greatest military alliance

Last week, senior administration authorities talked about Poland’s President Andrzej Duda’s check out to the White House, the very first by a foreign leader given that the start of the coronavirus pandemic. The White House authorities would not provide information of the partial withdrawal of U.S. forces from Germany and would not talk about the possibility that service members might possibly be moved to Poland.

Instead, the authorities promoted Warsaw’s monetary dedications to NATO along with the around $16 billion in foreign military sales, that includes the U.S.′ most pricey weapons system, the F-35 Lightning II fighter. 

The administration authorities likewise volleyed concerns on the matter to White House National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien’s op-ed in The Wall Street Journal. 

“The Cold War practice of garrisoning large numbers of troops with their families on massive bases in places like Germany is now, in part, obsolete. Modern warfare is increasingly expeditionary and requires platforms with extended range, flexibility and endurance. While air bases and logistics hubs remain important, the Cold War-style garrisoning of troops makes less military and fiscal sense than it did in the 1970s,” O’Brien composed in an op-ed released on June 21.

He included that the 25,000 U.S. soldiers slated to stay in Germany still represents a “strong” dedication to Germany by the United States.