US threatens to pull troops from Germany if no increase in NATO defense spending (again)
The U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell has suggested the United States should pull thousands of troops if the country does not increase its required NATO defense spending.
"It is actually offensive to assume that the U.S. taxpayer must continue to pay to have 50,000-plus Americans in Germany, but the Germans get to spend their surplus on domestic programs," Grenell told the Germany press agency DPA this week, which the U.S. Embassy later tweeted.
It is estimated there are 34,000 American service members stationed in Germany across more than three dozen Army and Air Force bases, as well as 17,000 American civilian support staff.
Grenell also took to Twitter to criticize Germany's lack of spending on defense.
"There are 34,000 U.S. troops in Germany protecting Germans and Europeans. I can tell you this: [journalist Roland Nelles] & [Der Spiegel magazine] are wrong. Americans don’t understand why Germany isn’t meeting its NATO obligations & helping the West. And they are growing very annoyed by it," he said Thursday.
Der Spiegel correspondent Roland Nelles wrote last week that Americans "should not care much about whether or not Germany participates in the Iran mission," this after Germany recently rejected a U.S. request to join a naval security mission to safeguard international transit through the Strait of Hormuz.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/us-threatens-to-pull-troops-from-germany-if-no-increase-in-nato-defense-spending/ar-AAFAo7r?li=BBnb7Kz
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