US troop pullout: German minister tells Trump security not a commodity

Germany's top government ministers have criticized US President Donald Trump for threatening to pull thousands of US troops out of the European country under the pretext that Berlin was "delinquent" in its payments to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

In a first official confirmation, Trump said Monday that the United States was planning to cut the number of its troops in Germany.

"Germany, as you know, is very delinquent in their payments to NATO,” he told reporters.

Trump says US to pull some troops from Germany over NATO spending feud

Donald Trump said on Monday he would cut the number of US troops in Germany to 25,000.

German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer hit back at Trump on Tuesday, rebuking the realtor-turned-president for his tradesman attitude, seeing security as a commodity.

"NATO is not a trade organization, and security is not a commodity," Kramp-Karrenbauer said during a discussion at the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung in Berlin.

“NATO is founded on solidarity, on trust. And it is based on common values and common interests,” she added.

In related remarks on Tuesday, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas noted that the presence of US troops in Germany was important for America's security. 

"We think that the US presence in Germany is important for the security not just of Germany but also for the security of the United States and especially for the security of Europe," Maas said during a visit to Warsaw.  

Furthermore, Maas complained that Berlin had not been formally informed of any US troop pullout from Germany.

The top German diplomat insisted that if US troops were to exit Germany, the American military leaders definitely needed to talk about it.

"Neither the State Department nor the Pentagon has been able to provide any information about this" Maas noted.

Trump has said he plans to withdraw 9,500 American troops from the country to make up for Berlin's insufficient payment to NATO. That would cut the number of US forces there to 25,000 from 34,500 at present.

Poland hoping to host US troops

Meanwhile, Polish media have reported that there is a possibility of President Andrzej Duda visiting Washington in an effort to win US approval for the deployment of soldiers to the country.

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has hoped that a number of US troops will be moved to Poland, once they are pulled out of Germany.

“If there is such an official invitation, then there will be such a visit and there will be such a meeting,” Krzysztof Szczerski, an aide to President Duda, told Polish radio.

Earlier, Reuters quoted an unnamed  senior official in the Trump administration as saying that some of the 9,500 troops would be deployed to Poland and some to other allied countries, while the rest would return home.

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