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The US is due to announce major cuts to the number of troops available to Europe in the event of an invasion or war.
The decision comes as part of pre-planned changes to the US force posture in Europe and was initially signalled at the start of Trump administration in line with the priorities of Washington’s “America First” doctrine.
The US currently has around 76,000 troops across NATO territory, the largest volume since the Cold War, due to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The announcement due on Friday will mainly concentrate on US capabilities accessible to NATO allies, and is not expected to change the numbers on the continent immediately. However, this too may change in the future.
In an interview on Euronews’ Europe Today show, NATO senior military advisor Colonel Martin O’Donnell confirmed the forthcoming plans, clarifying they’re part of an ongoing engagement between the US military and NATO military strategists.
He added that the areas where the US will draw back its commitments map directly onto areas where European countries have stepped up their capabilities and defence investment.
“Those adjustments have been discussed with NATO over the course of the last many months,” said O’Donnell. “There should be no surprises on this, and it will focus on areas where we see Europeans very, very capable of stepping up.”
Pulling back
While the announcement doesn’t directly reduce the number of US soldiers currently on NATO territory, a NATO military source confirmed to Euronews that it does reduce the US material support to Europe in the event of crisis or conflict.
Meanwhile, the chief Pentagon spokesman, Sean Parnell, posted a statement on Tuesday saying the US was in fact cutting the number of troops available to NATO as part of a “comprehensive, multi-layered process” focused on US posture in Europe.
The news comes just weeks after the Pentagon abruptly cancelled the deployment to Poland of a 4,000-strong force from the US Army’s 2nd Armoured Brigade Combat Team.
The brigade was cut as part of an earlier decision by Trump, who declared he was withdrawing 5,000 soldiers as part of a public feud with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
Trump took offence to remarks made by Merz who said White House negotiators were being “humiliated” by the regime in Tehran, and that the US-Israel war in Iran was ill-conceived.
NATO allies have been bracing themselves for changes to the US force posture across the territory, as the US has said it’s pivoting to other theatres such as the Western Hemisphere.
Despite the recent troop reduction and ongoing discussions about further commitments, O’Donnell said the US is still committed to NATO and still maintains a strong presence on the continent.
“It is important not to lose sight of the formidable strength – tens of thousands of land forces, including air forces, maritime forces, special forces including those participating now in NATO’s largest special forces exercise, Trojan Footprint,” he said.