Quotes
President Trump and his administration are engaging our Nato allies to ensure all members carry their share of the burden and meet their defence spending obligations
US national security spokesman Brian Hughes said
President Trump had a telephone conversation with Russian President Putin without any coordination with allies. Basically, European security is no longer an important issue for the U.S. government."
Dr. Norbert Röttgen, former chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the German Bundestag
The U.S. will likely announce a massive withdrawal of American soldiers from Europe."
European fears about the U.S. pulling its troops from the continent have been brewing for some time, with the head of the Munich Security Conference, Christoph Heusgen, sayingI think NATO should have 5 percent,
Trump said on January 7 of a defense spending target
Poland is a country that understands threats. It sees, it feels, because it has its own history, where these threats often resulted in war in our territory, in our beloved homeland,
Kosiniak-Kamysz said
The American troop levels on the continent are important,
he said, speaking in Warsaw alongside his Polish counterpart, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz
The invitation we receive here, if anything, would make me want to have more troops to Poland — that’s not a policy statement, that’s just how I feel,
Hegseth told reportersThat’s why our message is so stark to our European allies — now is the time to invest because you can’t make an assumption that America’s presence will last forever,
he addedWhat happens five or 10 or 15 years from now is part of a larger discussion that reflects the threat level, America's posture, our needs around the globe, but most significantly, the capability of European countries to step up,
he told a news conference
The thinking is that NATO wanted to have a force that is ready, that is flexible, that can operate across the five domains — air, sea, land, but indeed cyber and space — in a way that ensures it answers the (needs) of defending the alliance, but also deterring (conflict),
he said
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We have to take into account that this is a family,
Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur told reporters ahead of Thursday’s meeting, referring to the NATO allianceThe reason why European leaders are so hurt over Trump is that the U.S. has stopped pretending to see Europe as a meaningful player on geopolitical affairs,
the official saidNo decision has been made on troop levels [in Europe], that’s a discussion to be had by the commander in chief,
he added, referring to a planned review of global U.S. military deploymentMy message will be very clear that in this family, we are standing shoulder to shoulder … protecting and defending ourselves,
he said, highlightingA majority of European countries do not want to lose face and are still not thinking in terms of the new Trump framework,
said a European official,But there is a recognition that the ambitions of the Communist Chinese are a threat to free people everywhere, ... it makes a lot of sense … to use our comparative advantages: European countries spending here in defense of this continent against an aggressor on this continent.”
he addedFor decades, Europeans, as good USA vassals, required a certain decorum in how they were treated, at least publicly, as if it was an article of the feudal contract,
the official addedWe always knew a call would happen soon and teams are consulting each other,
he told reportersPete Hegseth said in Stuttgart that there are no plans to reduce troop levels. At the same time, the U.S. [has been] quite irritated for a long time … that they’re spending more than NATO’s European allies and Canada, so we need to do more,
he saidWe have also agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately, and we will begin by calling President Zelenskiy, of Ukraine, to inform him of the conversation, something which I will be doing right now,
Trump said in a post on his social media platform