Roughly 1,000 American soldiers will remain in Romania, the ministry said, emphasizing that they will continue to “contribute to deterrence of any threats and represent a guarantee of the U.S. commitment to regional security.”
This marks the first official acknowledgment from a NATO ally that Washington is scaling back forces on the continent. The move follows a shift in Washington’s strategic priorities announced in February by Donald Trump’s administration, which has been reviewing deployments in Europe amid calls to redirect resources toward the Indo-Pacific.
The Pentagon and U.S. European Command have not yet publicly detailed the scope or timing of the reductions.
The Mihail Kogălniceanu base has served as a key transit point for U.S. and allied troops reinforcing the alliance’s eastern defenses. At the height of the buildup, several thousand U.S. soldiers rotated through Romania and Poland as part of NATO’s deterrence mission.