Washington has other global priorities including countering China, Handelsblatt has reported
The US is expected to announce a reduction in its military presence in Europe in the “coming months,” the German daily Handelsblatt has reported, citing “high-ranking European diplomats.” The exact scale of the pullout is still unclear but NATO is reportedly making preparations for such a development, according to the paper.
The pullout could be linked to the new US national defense strategy, according to EU sources contacted by the newspaper. The document is expected to be ready by the end of summer, the report said. Washington needs to focus its efforts on countering China as it is not prepared for a potential confrontation with Beijing, according to US Undersecretary of Defense Elbridge Colby, who was approached by Handelsblatt.
Rumors about a potential pullout have been circulating in the media ever since NBC News reported in April that the US was considering withdrawing up to 10,000 troops from Eastern Europe. US President Donald Trump later confirmed that he is considering a partial withdrawal but did not elaborate on either its scale or timetable.
In mid-May, the US ambassador to NATO, Matthew Whitaker, said that Washington plans to start talks about a potential pullout with other NATO members following the bloc’s summit in June. “We are not going to have any more patience for foot dragging in this situation,” he said at the time, while admitting that “nothing has been determined” yet.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz publicly denied speculation about a US pullout during a visit to Lithuania this week. “We currently have no indication that the United States of America will withdraw troops from Europe,” he told journalists at a joint press conference with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda in Vilnius.
The cost of replacing the US equipment and personnel following a withdrawal could amount to around $1 trillion over 25 years, Politico reported earlier in May, citing a report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
As of early 2025, there were nearly 84,000 US troops stationed in Europe, with the largest concentrations in Germany and Poland, and smaller deployments in Romania, Estonia, and Lithuania, according to the US European Command.
