Germany Urges Stronger European Defense After US Reduces Troops

A planned drawdown of US troops from Germany should spur Europeans to strengthen their own defenses further, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said on Saturday, following the latest salvo from Washington against transatlantic ties.  The Pentagon announced on Friday that the United States would withdraw 5,000 soldiers from Germany, its largest European base, as a rift over the Iran war and tariff tensions place further strain on relations between the US and Europe.  Pistorius said the ‌move was expected.  Trump ‌had threatened a drawdown in forces earlier this ‌week after ⁠sparring with German ⁠Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who has questioned Washington’s strategy in the Middle East.  GERMANY BOOSTING TROOPS, MILITARY INFRASTRUCTURE  Pistorius said the partial withdrawal would affect a current US presence of almost 40,000 soldiers stationed in Germany. Other estimates put the active-duty troop presence at 35,000.  “We Europeans must take on more responsibility for our own security,” Pistorius said, adding, “Germany is on the right track” by ⁠expanding its armed forces, speeding up military procurement and ‌building infrastructure.  Germany wants to boost the ‌number of active-duty Bundeswehr soldiers from a current 185,000 to 260,000, though critics of the ‌defense minister have called for more in response to a widely ‌perceived growing threat from Russia.  NATO members have pledged to take on more responsibility for their own defense but with tight budgets and vast gaps in military capability it will take years for the region to meet its own security needs.  LONG-RANGE ‌FIRE BATTALION CANCELLED  The US military presence in Germany, which began as an occupation force after World War ⁠Two, peaked during ⁠the 1960s when hundreds of thousands of American military personnel were stationed there to counter the Soviet Union during the Cold War.  The US presence includes the giant Ramstein airbase and Landstuhl hospital, both of which have been used by the US to support its war in Iran, as well as previous conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.  The Pentagon decision means one full brigade will leave Germany and a long-range fires battalion that was due to be deployed later this year will be cancelled.  The loss of the long-range fires will be a particular blow to Berlin, as it had been due to form a significant extra element of deterrence against Russia while Europeans developed such long-range missiles themselves.