YEREVAN, Armenia\u00a0\u2014\u00a0European leaders on Monday said President Trump\u2019s surprise decision to pull thousands of U.S. troops out of Germany is just the latest signal that Europe must take more responsibility for its security.<\/p>\n
The Pentagon announced last week it would pull some 5,000 troops out of Germany, but Trump told reporters on Saturday the U.S. plans on \u201ccutting a lot further.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump offered no reason for the move, which blindsided NATO. But his decision came amid an escalating dispute with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who said the U.S. has been humiliated by Iran in talks to end the war it launched with Israel on Feb. 28. Trump has also expressed anger over European allies\u2019 reluctance to get involved in the conflict.<\/p>\n
European leaders meeting at a summit in Yerevan, Armenia, sought to both downplay the impact of 5,000 fewer troops in Germany while acknowledging that it provides a useful nudge for the continent to step up its role within NATO.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do not see those figures as dramatic, but I think they should be handled in a harmonious way inside the framework of NATO,\u201d said Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr St\u00f8re. <\/p>\n
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said \u201cthere needs to be a stronger European element in NATO, I have no doubt about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tensions within NATO have mounted since the second Trump administration came into office last year warning that European allies would have to defend themselves and Ukraine in the future. Talks on ending the war there, now in its fourth year, have bogged down as the U.S. focuses on Iran.<\/p>\n
Taken by surprise<\/p>\n
The European Union\u2019s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said the timing of Trump\u2019s announcement came as a surprise, even though there has been \u201ctalk about withdrawal of U.S. troops for a long time from Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked whether she believes Trump is trying to punish Merz, Kallas said: \u201cI don\u2019t see into the head of President Trump, so he has to explain it himself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Merz did not attend the European Political Community summit in Yerevan, which included about 30 European leaders, plus Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.<\/p>\n
At a military exercise in northern Germany, the country\u2019s defense minister, Boris Pistorius, said Berlin has not yet received \u201cofficial confirmation of when and how this is supposed to happen, on what scale.\u201d The reduction of U.S. troops \u201cwould not put into question NATO\u2019s deterrence capability,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
European countries and Canada have increased defense spending and military recruitment efforts over the last year in response to Trump\u2019s threats.<\/p>\n
NATO seeks clarity<\/p>\n
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte also played down the significance of fewer U.S. troops in Germany, while acknowledging U.S. \u201cdisappointment\u201d about the level of European support for the Iran war.<\/p>\n
France and the U.K. have given U.S. forces limited use of bases on their territories to attack Iran. Spain has outright denied U.S. forces the use of its airspace and bases.<\/p>\n
Rutte, who has championed Trump\u2019s leadership at NATO despite the U.S. president\u2019s criticism of a majority of the allies, said: \u201cI would say the Europeans have heard a message.\u201d<\/p>\n
European allies and Canada have known since early last year that Trump would pull some troops out of Europe \u2014 and some were pulled out of Romania in October \u2014 but U.S. officials had pledged to coordinate any moves with NATO allies to avoid creating a security vacuum.<\/p>\n
NATO spokesperson Allison Hart said over the weekend that officials at the 32-nation military alliance \u201care working with the U.S. to understand the details of their decision on force posture in Germany.\u201d<\/p>\n
Iran and trade trouble<\/p>\n
With the ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran looking shakier, Rutte said European nations \u201chave decided to pre-position assets, key assets, close to the theater for the next phase.\u201d He provided no further details.<\/p>\n
European leaders have insisted their countries would not help police the Strait of Hormuz, a key energy trade route, until the war is over.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the United States is ready to reopen Hormuz, that\u2019s great. That\u2019s what we\u2019ve been asking for since the beginning,\u201d said French President Emmanuel Macron. But he underlined that Europeans are not ready to get involved in any operation \u201cthat does not seem clear.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carlson and Cook write for the Associated Press. Cook reported from Brussels. AP writer Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"YEREVAN, Armenia\u00a0\u2014\u00a0European leaders on Monday said President Trump\u2019s surprise decision to pull thousands of U.S. troops out of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10252,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9414,4447,151,9411,9412,9410,5,253,478,9415,8524,9417,9416,9413,2029],"class_list":{"0":"post-10251","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-big-role","9":"tag-country","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-european-ally","12":"tag-european-leader","13":"tag-few-troop","14":"tag-germany","15":"tag-iran","16":"tag-nato","17":"tag-office-last-year","18":"tag-president-trump","19":"tag-rutte","20":"tag-surprise-decision","21":"tag-u-s-troop","22":"tag-u-s"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}