Troop withdrawal announcement adds to friction between Europe, Trump

BERLIN — Germany’s defense minister on Saturday appeared to take in stride a Pentagon announcement that the United States plans to pull some 5,000 troops out of the country, President Donald Trump’s latest attempt to reduce America’s commitment to European security. Boris Pistorius said the drawdown, which Trump has threatened for years, was expected, and he said European nations needed to take on more responsibility for their own defense. But he also emphasized that security cooperation benefited both sides of the trans-Atlantic partnership. “The presence of American soldiers in Europe, and especially in Germany, is in our interest and in the interest of the U.S.,” Pistorius told the German news agency dpa. The planned withdrawal faced bipartisan resistance in Washington, with swift criticism from Democrats and concern from Republicans that it would send the “wrong signal” to Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose full=scale invasion of Ukraine recently entered its fifth year. Trump’s decision comes as he seethes at European allies over their unwillingness to join his campaig

Read Full Article