The chairmen of the House and Senate Armed Service committees on Saturday said they are "very concerned" about the planned withdrawal of 5,000 US troops from Germany.
"We are very concerned by the decision to withdraw a US brigade from Germany," the chairs, Sen. Roger Wicker and Rep. Mike Rogers, two top US Republican lawmakers, said in a joint statement.
"Germany has stepped up in response to President (Donald) Trump's call for greater burden sharing, significantly increasing defense spending and providing seamless access, basing, and overflight for US forces in support of Operation Epic Fury."
Wicker and Rogers argued that "prematurely reducing" the US military presence in Europe "sends the wrong signal" to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and that permitting European allies to assume primary responsibility, as they "move toward spending 5% of GDP on defense… will take time."
They suggested that rather than removing the troops out of Europe entirely, they should be forwarded to the east, stressing that "significant" changes to the US's posture in Europe requires "a deliberate review process."
The US defense chief has ordered the withdrawal of approximately 5,000 troops from Germany, a Pentagon spokesman said Friday.
It came after Trump said that the US was assessing a possible reduction of its military presence in Germany. The remarks came after German Chancellor Friedrich Merz criticized the US for apparently lacking an exit strategy in the Iran war, saying Americans were being "humiliated" by the Iranian leadership in talks.
