America withdraws tens of thousands of troops, Germany is happy

Source: Reuters | Author: S.S. குர்னியவன்

KONTAN.CO.ID – Berlin. The German government has welcomed US President Joe Biden’s move to suspend plans to withdraw troops from Germany, another sign of a rift in relations between Washington and Berlin.

“We always believe that the deployment of US troops in Germany will help the security of Europe and the Trans-Atlantic,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman Stephen Seibert was quoted as saying on Friday (5/2). Reuters.

He added that decades of cooperation with US forces was invaluable.

On Thursday, Biden announced that his administration would end the reduction of US troops in Germany, as a global review of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s Yuk Sam’s military invasion is pending.

Also read: The withdrawal of US troops worries the NATO alliance

Under the administration of President Donald Trump, the Pentagon announced in July last year that the United States would withdraw about 12,000 of its 36,000 troops from Germany. This is after Trump’s long fight with Berlin for failing to meet NATO’s defense spending targets.

South and West Germany were once full of US military installations. Many of these have been around since the end of World War II, when the Allies defeated Nazi Germany.

The number of American troops in Germany is now only a fraction of the number at the height of the Cold War with the Soviet Union.

However, the Pentagon maintains a number of important installations in Germany, including Rammstein Airport, which serves as a gateway for US troops to Europe and the Middle East.