The Pentagon pressed forward with plans to withdraw nearly 12,000 personnel from Germany on Wednesday, with some of the troops to be redeployed to other European NATO nations while others are sent home. At the moment, there are about 36,000 US troops stationed in the Central European country. American troops have been on German soil since 1945.
US President Donald Trump has taken to Twitter to justify the partial withdrawal of US forces from Germany, accusing Berlin of being “delinquent” on its NATO commitment to spend 2 percent of GDP on defence, and asking why America should “protect” a country that's buying billions of dollars' worth of Russian energy supplies.
Trump's tweet followed a press conference by Secretary of Defence Mark Esper Wednesday where the Pentagon chief confirmed that the US would be withdrawing about 11,900 troops from Germany, with the redeployment expected to begin in the next few weeks.
According to Esper, about 5,600 of the repositioned Army and Air Force troops will be redeployed to other NATO nations, including in the Baltic states, Poland , and NATO's southeastern flank, with 6,400 others to be sent back home to the United States.
Earlier Wednesday, Trump accused Germany of ‘taking advantage of the US' on trade and on the military. “[The troops are] there to protect Europe, they're there to protect Germany, and Germany is supposed to pay for it. We don't…
