- A high-ranking ally of Merkel attacks Trump’s decision to withdraw nearly 12,000 soldiers from Germany.
- US Defense Secretary Mark Esper laid out the details of the plan on Wednesday, and President Trump again expressed frustration with “criminal” Germany.
- Esper said the plan “will strengthen NATO and improve operational efficiency.”
- However, Norbert Roettgen, chairman of the German parliament’s foreign affairs committee, said the move would reduce America’s “military influence” and “accomplish exactly the opposite” of what Trump wants to achieve.
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A key ally of Angela Merkel has attacked Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw nearly 12,000 soldiers from Germany, saying it will reduce America’s “military influence” and “weaken” NATO in its efforts to contain Russia.
On Wednesday, the Trump administration laid out details of its plan to withdraw 11,900 soldiers from Germany “in a matter of weeks” amid ongoing tension between Chancellor Merkel and President Trump.
Trump expressed his frustration with “delinquent” Germany at yesterday’s press conference for not planning to meet NATO’s goal of spending 2% of GDP on national defense by 2024.
“We don’t want to be dumb anymore,” Trump said Wednesday. “We are protecting Germany, so we are reducing the force because they are not paying their bills. It is very simple. They are criminals.”
United States Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said the measure supported the strategic goals of the United States and that it “would strengthen NATO and improve operational efficiency.”
About half of the US troops withdrawing from Germany will be relocated to Europe, Esper said, and some will go to Italy and countries in the Black Sea region. Some troops could be sent to Poland and the Baltic, he added.
The rest will return to the United States, at least temporarily, Esper said.
However, high-ranking German politician Norbert Roettgen, who is standing to succeed his ally Angela Merkel as chancellor, rebuked the move, saying it “would achieve the exact opposite” of Esper’s goals.
Roettgen, a former minister in the Merkel government who now chairs the German Parliament’s foreign affairs committee, tweeted: “By withdrawing 12,000 soldiers from #Germany, #USA accomplishes the exact opposite of what #Esper described. Instead of strengthen #NATO, it leaves to weaken the alliance. The military influence of the United States will not increase, but will decrease [sic] in relation to Russia and the Near and Middle East. “
Germany “no longer feels that it can trust the United States”
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Trump’s decision to withdraw troops from Germany is the last critical point in his strained relationship with Merkel.
Andreas Michaelis, Germany’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, recently told Business Insider that the “deficiencies” in Germany’s relationship with the United States meant that working with the Trump administration now “is not easy.”
“With all the shortcomings in terms of information policy and things being decided without consultation, this mess that has entered the relationship is something that concerns us,” he said.
The Merkel government reacted furiously to the decision to withdraw the troops when it was revealed in early summer.
Johann Wadephul, a leading figure in Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party, said last month: “We hope that our leading ally will act as a model, with guidance and balance, not with maximum pressure.”
“You don’t treat couples like that.”
Peter Beyer, Germany’s Coordinator for Transatlantic Cooperation, said it was “completely unacceptable”.
In a separate row, EU officials were “furious” with the Trump administration, Bloomberg reported, after the president moved to shut Germany and the rest of the EU out of White House talks between leaders. from Serbia and Kosovo. Merkel had played a leading role in trying to negotiate reconciliation between the two countries.
Trump also sparked outrage in Germany after he allegedly sought exclusive access to a coronavirus vaccine that was being developed in the country.
A report released on Wednesday by the London-based think tank, the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), stated that Germany no longer believes it can wait for US aid against the threat from Russia and China.
The report says Germany “is on the front line” in the West’s efforts to repel interference from the Kremlin and Beijing, but “with President Donald Trump in his fourth year as president, he no longer feels he can trust the United States support your safety. “
