US Under Secretary for Defence Elbridge Colby on Thursday met with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and the alliance’s ambassadors in Brussels as Washington reviews the presence of US troops in Europe.<\/p>\n
Washington wants input from allies “directly in writing,” Colby said, referring to a questionnaire the US recently sent to fellow NATO members. He said that several completed questionnaires had already been received and that the US looked forward to evaluating them.<\/p>\n
The review, announced in June by US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, has raised concerns about possible US troop withdrawals from Europe.<\/p>\n
Colby did not say how many US sites in Europe could be reduced or closed as part of the ongoing review of the US military presence. He said the allies’ responses and offers would first be assessed. Hegseth has said the review should be completed by December at the latest.<\/p>\n
The move is part of Washington’s push for a so-called “NATO 3.0,” under which European allies take primary responsibility for the conventional defence of Europe and provide the bulk of the forces required.<\/p>\n
Under the model, the US is to continue to provide the alliance with its nuclear deterrence while focusing its conventional military contribution to more limited and targeted capabilities.<\/p>\n
Europe would, however, remain “a critical interest for the United States,” Colby said, even as Washington’s priority has shifted to the Western Hemisphere and First Island Chain in the Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n
Colby did not give specific examples of the content of the questionnaire, but mentioned “access, basing, overflight” as issues where “there’s some things that we need to work out to make sense going forward.”<\/p>\n
NATO allies asked about greater command responsibilities<\/p>\n
Other questions include whether allies are prepared to take on greater responsibility within NATO’s command structure, according to NATO sources.<\/p>\n
Politically sensitive issues, including arms procurement from US companies and existing restrictions on US forces operating in Europe, are also addressed.<\/p>\n
Such restrictions angered Washington at the start of the Iran war, when some allies barred the US from using bases on their territory for military activities related to the conflict.<\/p>\n
Colby said the US was not seeking a complete blank cheque in every situation, but needed to be able to operate effectively and have predictability. A lack of predictability during Operation Epic Fury had caused legitimate frustration for President Donald Trump, he said. The US government uses the name for its military campaign against Iran.<\/p>\n
The questions about defence procurement are believed to stem from US criticism of European efforts to promote “Made in Europe” in the defence industry. Colby said the US understood European investment in the sector, but US firms should not be disadvantaged or excluded from the European market.<\/p>\n
Colby praised Berlin after the talks at NATO headquarters, describing Germany as highly cooperative and saying discussions on joint defence production had been highly results-oriented.<\/p>\n
He said the changes Germany had initiated over the past 18 months as an extraordinary tectonic shift and a historic change, saying the country had moved from broad demilitarization to rapid rearmament.<\/p>\n
Rutte also welcomed the consultations and the review process, saying they were aimed at “a stronger Europe and a stronger Canada in a stronger NATO.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US Under Secretary for Defence Elbridge Colby on Thursday met with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12277,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7226,7,292],"class_list":["post-12276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-colby","tag-nato","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}