NATO will review details of the withdrawal of US troops from Germany NATO news

The US says it plans to withdraw up to 5,000 troops from Germany in the next six to 12 months as tensions with its European allies escalate over the Iran conflict.

NATO is reportedly monitoring more of the United States the decision to leave about 5,000 soldiers from Germany, a major partner in the Western security alliance, amid tensions in the Iran war.

In a statement on Saturday, NATO Spokesperson Allison Hart said the bloc “is working with the US to understand the details of their decision to force Germany”, a process that the Pentagon estimates will take place in the next six to 12 months.

The planned move comes as US President Donald Trump is at loggerheads with European institutions for not doing more to help in the US-Israel war against Iran. He spoke angrily to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who recently said the US was being “scorned” by Iran’s leadership.

Trump responded with encouraging Merz to stop “messing up” in Iran and spending more time “fixing his broken country”. The US president also called NATO a “paper tiger” and “useless”.

‘Changing US goals’

Former US ambassador Donald Jensen said the withdrawal of US troops reflects a change in the need for the US military and could signal a long-term overhaul of European security.

“Reducing or redeploying, whatever you want, it shows a change in US intentions,” Jensen told Al Jazeera, adding that more American troops could now be deployed closer to China, which Washington sees as a bigger threat than Russia.

Jensen said the change in the US military could lead to “permanent changes in security (in Europe), the final form of which we do not know yet”.

“But of course, it reflects Washington’s view of our European partners,” he said.

Reacting to the US announcement, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said Germany hopes the US will back down and Europeans must take greater responsibility for their own security.

“Germany is on the right track” in this regard, Pistorius said, pointing to the expansion of its armed forces, the large and rapid procurement of weapons and the construction of parts.

NATO’s Hart also agreed with this idea, saying that the US decision “underlines the need for Europe to continue to invest more in defense and to take a greater part of our shared security responsibility”.

“We are confident in our ability to protect and defend ourselves as the transition to a stronger Europe in a stronger NATO continues,” he added.

At last year’s NATO summit in The Hague, members agreed to increase defense spending to 5 percent of their income, double the previous figure of 2 percent.