Germany welcomes Biden’s decision of freezing Trump’s withdrawal of troops
Germany has welcomed United States (U.S.) President – Joe Biden’s decision to formally halt the planned withdrawal of U.S. troops from Germany.
In 2020, the then President of U.S. – Donald Trump had announced to pull out 12,000 of the 34,500 troops from Germany. While 6,400 of 9,500 troops would have been sent home, others would have been repositioned to other North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member nations.
Trump was very critical of Germany’s contributions to NATO during his tenure. Trump had proposed to withdraw 12,000 troops from Germany. Trump believed that Germany’s spending on defence is too low and it is not viable to keep the U.S. troops posted there. It was initially agreed by all alliance members that defence spending should reach 2% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2024 Germany, along with many other countries, is yet to meet this target.
The move is in line with Biden’s promise of undoing a series of moves that were proposed by Trump. Biden said that the pull-out would be halted till Defence Secretary of U.S. – Lloyd J. Austin III reviews the presence of U.S. troops across the globe.
Talking about the review of U.S. troops across the globe, Lloyd tweeted,
Per direction from @POTUS, I’ll be leading a Global Posture Review of U.S. military forces around the world so our footprint aligns with our national interests. We need to make sure we have the right capabilities in the right places & we are supporting the work of our diplomats. pic.twitter.com/wT6YER6pOv
— Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III (@SecDef) February 5, 2021
Speaking on occasion, the Spokesperson of German Chancellor, Angela Merkel – Steffen Seibert said, “We will remain in contact with the new American administration on its further plans.”
He further said, “We have always been convinced that the stationing of American troops here in Germany serves European and transatlantic security, and so is in our mutual interest.”
The U.S. troops are stationed at various points in Germany. They have their bases at Ramstein Air Base, the headquarters for U.S. European Command and U.S. Africa Command and Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, the largest American military hospital outside the United States.
A large number of U.S. troops were stationed in Germany after World War II. Several American military installations were established during this time, and eventually hundreds were in place, mainly in Southern Germany. At the time of German Reunification in 1990, there were still about 200,000 U.S. soldiers in Germany. By 2014, this number was reduced to 42,450 stationed in 38 facilities.
