{"id":9598,"date":"2026-05-02T08:43:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T08:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/9598\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T08:43:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T08:43:08","slug":"us-troop-drawback-underlines-european-defence-responsibility-german-minister-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/9598\/","title":{"rendered":"US Troop Drawback Underlines European Defence Responsibility, German Minister Says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>BERLIN, May 2 (Reuters) &#8211; Europeans \u2060must \u2060take greater responsibility for \u2060their own security, German Defence Minister \u200bBoris Pistorius said on Saturday in response to \u200cthe announcement of U.S. \u200cplans to withdraw 5,000 troops from \u2060Germany.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Germany \u2060is on the right track&#8221; in this regard, \u200bPistorius said, pointing to the expansion of its Bundeswehr armed forces, greater and faster procurement of \u200bequipment and the construction of infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p>The Pentagon announced \u2060on Friday \u2060that the U.S. \u2060would \u200bwithdraw 5,000 military personnel from NATO ally Germany.<\/p>\n<p>Pistorius put \u200bthe current \u2060number of U.S. troops stationed in Germany at &#8220;almost 40,000&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>In response to heavy criticism from Washington over defence spending, European NATO members, including \u2060Germany, have pledged to take on more responsibility for \u2060their own defence.<\/p>\n<p>But with tight budgets and vast military capability gaps it will take years for the region to meet its own security needs.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The presence of American soldiers in Europe, and especially in Germany, is in our interest and in the \u2060interest of the United States,&#8221; Pistorius said.<\/p>\n<p>Still, it was &#8220;foreseeable that the U.S. would withdraw troops from Europe, including Germany&#8221;, he added.<\/p>\n<p>(Reporting \u200bby Sabine Siebold and Rachel More; \u200bediting by James Mackenzie)<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 Thomson Reuters.<\/p>\n<p>Photos You Should See \u2013 April 2026<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/april-28-pyss-w01.jpg\" alt=\"Dancers rehearse before an audition for the Radio City Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall in New York, on Wednesday, April 22, 2026. (AP Photo\/Yuki Iwamura)\" class=\"Image__PictureImage-sc-412cjc-1 bBgODV Image-sc-412cjc-2 SlideshowEmbed__Picture-fkpjfn-0 kQDDcT bUlaJL\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BERLIN, May 2 (Reuters) &#8211; Europeans \u2060must \u2060take greater responsibility for \u2060their own security, German Defence Minister \u200bBoris&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[982,151,722,60,5,253,61,381,671,4416,1831,774,59,481,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-9598","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-collections-world","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-european-union","11":"tag-france","12":"tag-germany","13":"tag-iran","14":"tag-italy","15":"tag-middle-east","16":"tag-poland","17":"tag-reuters","18":"tag-russia","19":"tag-ukraine","20":"tag-united-kingdom","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9598","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=9598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}