Germany has not yet received details on US troop withdrawal, defense minister says

The US announcement that it would withdraw 5,000 troops from Germany did not come as a surprise, but Berlin has not yet received details, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said Monday.

“It’s now supposed to be 5,000 soldiers — but we don’t yet have official confirmation of when, how, or on what scale this is supposed to happen,” Pistorius told reporters during a visit to a military training base in Munster.

The minister said the decision was “not really surprising,” noting that he has long warned the US would increasingly focus on the Indo-Pacific and scale back its presence in Europe—and that NATO allies should have been preparing for that scenario.

Pistorius made the remarks in response to a question about President Donald Trump’s recent decision to pull 5,000 US troops from Germany, as well as reports that the administration has put on hold a plan to station long-range Tomahawk missiles in the country as a deterrent against Russia.

Recalling that the planned deployment of these long-range missiles was agreed upon two years ago between then-Chancellor Olaf Scholz and then-President Joe Biden, he noted that it was intended as a “temporary measure” until Europeans develop their own capabilities.

“The fact that this might not happen the way we previously assumed reopens this capability gap,” Pistorius said. “We have to see how we can compensate for this.”

He added that this problem could be addressed with the help of Americans or through other means. “There are ideas for this, but no solution yet,” he said.

Tensions between the German government and the Trump administration escalated last week after Chancellor Friedrich Merz criticized the United States for lacking an “exit strategy” in the Iran war and said Americans were being “humiliated” by the Iranian regime during talks.

Merz also cast doubt on a quick end to the conflict, saying: “The Iranians are obviously stronger than expected, and the Americans clearly don’t have a truly convincing strategy in the negotiations either.”

Trump responded on social media, saying Merz “doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” The Pentagon later announced that it would withdraw 5,000 troops from Germany, and Trump said an even bigger reduction was coming.

US media also reported that the Trump administration plans to scrap a plan announced by the previous administration to deploy a battalion with long-range Tomahawk weapons to Germany as a deterrent against Russia.