Recall that on Monday, trump confirmed at the meeting with journalists the information that the military strength of the United States in Germany will be reduced from 34.5 to 25 thousand people. He explained this by the fact that Germany spends too little on arms. “The Germans, as you all know, is very impolite in terms of financial investments in NATO, they release into service only one percent of GDP, although two percent. And even two percent is too little. You need to allocate more. So they cheat us of billions of dollars, and this has been happening for many years”, – said the President of the United States.
Recall that earlier information about this decision, trump published edition of the Wall Street Journal and Reuters suggested that the part of the military personnel transferred to Poland. It immediately reacted in Warsaw. Polish President Andrzej Duda said that the American army “in Poland are always happy” and that she is “a very strong guarantee of security.” And the Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki over the weekend told supporters: “We do our job, i.e. we bow our American and NATO partners to strengthen its military presence in Poland.” These statements did not go unnoticed in Moscow. The official representative of Russian foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova recalled at the briefing on 11 June: “the Reconfiguration of the US military presence in Europe toward Russian borders not only exacerbate the already high tensions in the security sector on the continent, but also complicate the prospects of establishing a constructive dialogue between Russia and NATO in the military-political sphere. It is clear that in Warsaw many would like to erase the relevant commitments enshrined in the Founding act Russia-NATO. But for us, this line is unacceptable.”
NATO has also not remained indifferent to the decision of the White house. As said Tuesday at a press conference in Brussels, the Secretary General of this organization, Jens Stoltenberg, Wednesday and Thursday the defense Ministers of countries-members of the Alliance will discuss the situation in a videoconference. He said that he had a phone conversation with the American leader. “The meaning of my message was that the American military presence in Europe is beneficial not only to Europeans but also to Americans because transatlantic relations are playing a key role in strengthening the Union,” – said Stoltenberg. He believes that the format of the debate, which will take place on Wednesday and Thursday, will clarify the details of the forthcoming operation to reduce the US military presence in Germany. With the Minister of defence in this country Annegret Kramp-karrenbauer of the NATO Secretary General also held preliminary consultations.
Meanwhile, in Russia, according to the foreign Ministry of the Russian Federation, would welcome Lubae Washington’s actions on the real drawdown of its military presence in Europe. “Such steps would certainly reduce the potential of confrontation and military-political tension in the Euro-Atlantic region. Let me remind you, Moscow has always stated that the preservation of significant numbers of U.S. armed forces in Germany after its unification in 1990 is a remnant of the era of “cold war”, – said Maria Zakharova at the end of last week.
