By Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The new US Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, praised Germany for presenting US troops on Wednesday in a call with his German counterpart, sparking speculation that President Joe Biden was withdrawing. was ordered by his predecessor Donald Trump.
Austin plans to conduct a global review of the position of U.S. troops, which would include Trump’s order last year to eventually withdraw about a third of the 34,000 U.S. troop contingent in Germany.
Trump, who states that “we no longer want to be the suckers”, blamed the close US ally for failing to meet NATO’s defense spending target and accused him of exploiting the United States in trade.
Austin got another suit.
“Secretary Austin expressed his gratitude to Germany for still being a great host to US forces,” the Pentagon said in a statement following Austin’s call with German Defense Secretary Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer.
Under Trump’s withdrawal plan, just under 6,000 of the approximately 12,000 U.S. troops withdrawing from Germany would be repositioned to the Black Sea region, and some could temporarily deploy in waves to the Baltic region.
Other forces leaving Germany would move permanently to Italy, and the U.S. Army headquarters would move from Stuttgart, Germany, to Belgium.
The Trump exit caught Germany off guard.
A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Austin assured Kramp-Karrenbauer that whatever the United States would do in the future, it would do so in consultation with Germany.
Trump repeatedly attacked Germany while in office. Biden, who took office last week, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday stressed the need for co-operation on global challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Pentagon said Austin also spoke to Kramp-Karrenbauer about “violence in Afghanistan and Iraq and combating the malicious influence of our shared strategic opponents.”
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas spoke with the new US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, on Wednesday and agreed to work together on issues such as China and Iran’s nuclear power capacity, the German Foreign Ministry said in a tweet .
(Reporting by Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali; Editing by Howard Goller)
Originally published