NATO’s top military officer said Tuesday he did not expect additional U.S. troop reductions in Europe soon beyond the 5,000 President Donald Trump said would leave the continent.
The comments by U.S. Lt. Gen. Alex Grynkewich followed Trump’s announcement earlier this month. The Pentagon later said the reduction would come by canceling deployments to Poland and Germany, rather than withdrawing forces already stationed in Europe.
“It will be 5,000 troops coming out of Europe,” Grynkewich told reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels, where senior military officers from the 32-member alliance were meeting. “It’s all that I’m expecting in the near term.”
Trump’s announcement came despite U.S. commitments to coordinate military moves with allies and avoid creating security gaps.
Trump had also criticized allies over the war involving Iran and called for changes. He was notably angry at Germany after Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the United States was being “humiliated” by the Iranian leadership and criticized what he described as a lack of U.S. strategy in the war.
Under current plans, about 4,000 troops from the Army’s 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team will no longer deploy to Poland, and the planned deployment to Germany of about 1,000 personnel trained to fire long-range rockets and missiles has been halted. Much of the detail is still being worked out.
He said Europe’s security would not be compromised, but he also said allies should expect more U.S. redeployments over time.
“Over the long term, we absolutely should expect additional redeployments as European continues to build capability and capacity and step up to provide more of the conventional defense of Europe,” Grynkewich said.
“It’s going to be an ongoing process for several years,” he said, adding: “We’re going to stay well-synchronized with our allies moving forward.”
The reduction is small compared with the roughly 80,000 U.S. personnel estimated to be stationed in Europe.