European leaders have found fresh enthusiasm for upholding Europe’s role in NATO after the United States announced it would be reducing its troops on the continent.
President Donald Trump made good on his threat to reduce U.S. troops in Germany after Chancellor Friedrich Merz suggested Iran was “humiliating” the global superpower, removing 5,000 military personnel from the country’s bases and promising further slashes.
The announcements came ahead of European Union leaders gathering in Yerevan, Armenia, for a European Political Community summit. Several leaders echoed each other in expressing shock and emphasizing that EU members of NATO must “do more” to hold up their side of the alliance.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte believes “the Europeans have heard a message.”
“There has been talk about withdrawing U.S. troops from Europe for a long time,” Kaja Kallas, top diplomat for the European Union, said on Monday. “But of course, the timing of this announcement comes as a surprise.”
The Pentagon put forward the troop reduction on Friday. Trump ramped up the pressure on Saturday evening, telling the press, “We are going to cut way down, and we’re cutting a lot further than 5,000.”
“I think it shows that we have to really strengthen the European pillar in NATO and we really have to do more,” Kallas said. “American troops are not in Europe only for protecting European interests, but also American interests.”
Asked if the move was meant as punishment for Merz’s comments last month, Kallas said, “I don’t see into the head of President Trump, so he has to explain it himself.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told a plenary session at the summit that it is obvious “some of the alliances that we have come to rely on are not in the place we would want them to be.”
He also drew attention to how the financial turmoil caused by the Strait of Hormuz closure will “play out with our electorates in all of our countries.”
Merz, meanwhile, has been doing his best to recover from the damage caused to U.S.-German relations by his comments to students at a local school.
In an interview with broadcaster ARD, the German chancellor said he and Trump “have conversations at somewhat longer intervals but fairly regularly,” though “not in the past week.”
He dismissed the notion that the troop reduction was caused directly by his words, saying they had been stationed there on a “temporary basis” by former President Joe Biden and their “withdrawal has been discussed for quite some time.”
Merz, however, admitted that a Biden-era commitment to furnishing Germany with Tomahawk missiles might not pan out if relations continue as they have.
“As I see it at the moment, objectively speaking, there is hardly any possibility of the U.S. supplying weapons systems of this kind,” Merz said. “The Americans themselves don’t have enough at the moment.”
He lamented that his commentary on the situation in the Strait of Hormuz caused such bad blood but maintained that he must speak honestly about the challenges presented by the conflict. He only wondered if he could have conveyed his message more amicably.
“When I see such reactions, I ask myself what I could have said better,” he reflected. “I’ll say it better next time. But I won’t say something different.”
Merz nevertheless affirmed that he is “not giving up on working on the trans-Atlantic relationship” nor “giving up on working with Donald Trump.”
The German Defense Ministry announced on Monday that it is moving naval assets into position as it hopes to “make a significant and visible contribution within an international coalition to protect freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.”
The German Embassy in Washington, D.C., said the FGS Fulda, a mine-hunting vessel, is “deploying to the Mediterranean to be forward-positioned to join a multinational mission to secure the Strait of Hormuz when the conditions are met.”
Trump has not yet announced any other countries that might be seeing a reduction in U.S. troops, but prime candidates are Italy and Spain, two countries that the White House has resented for perceived failures to back them against Iran.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni told reporters on Monday that reducing troops in Italy is a “decision that doesn’t depend on me” but is one that she “personally would not agree with.”
“Italy has always fulfilled its obligations, always doing so within the framework of NATO, even when our direct interests were not at stake, as in Afghanistan and Iraq,” Meloni explained. “I do not consider some of the things that were said about us to be correct.”
She added that leaders “must work to strengthen NATO’s European pillar, which must clearly complement the American one.”
TRUMP WARNS IRAN WILL BE ‘BLOWN OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH’ IF US VESSELS HIT IN STRAIT OF HORMUZ
Meloni may have a chance to plead her case when she meets with Secretary of State Marco Rubio later this week.
Rubio is traveling to Rome for a meeting with Pope Leo XIV and is expected to double up with the Italian government.
