US will move some troops from Germany to Poland: Trump

PTI, Jun 25, 2020, 7:53 AM IST

Washington: President Donald Trump has said that he will send some of the US troops from Germany to Poland.
Trump had last week said that the United States will reduce its troop strength in Germany from the nearly 52,000 at present to 25,000.

“We’ll probably be moving them (troops) from Germany to Poland,” Trump told reporters at a White House Rose Garden news conference with the visiting Polish President Andrzej Duda.

Trump was responding to a question on his decision to reduce the number of US troops in Germany from 52,000 to about 25,000.

“They (Poland) asked us if we would send some additional troops. They’re going to pay for that. They’ll be paying for the sending of additional troops. We will probably be moving them from Germany to Poland,” Trump said.

“We’re going to be reducing in Germany very substantially down to about 25,000 troops. We actually had 52,000 but we’ll be moving it down to about 25,000,” he said. “Germany’s paying a very small fraction of what they’re supposed to be paying. They should be paying two percent and they’re paying a little bit more than one percent depending on how you calculate. They are paying less than one percent,” he added.

That’s tremendous delinquency, he said reiterating that the US is going to reduce its troops in Germany.

“Some will be coming home and some will be going to other places. But Poland would be one of those other places. Other places in Europe,” he added.

Responding to a question, Trump said the decision will send a very strong signal to Russia.

“A stronger signal sent to Russia is the fact that Germany is paying billions of dollars to purchase energy from Russia through the pipeline… You’re giving billions of dollars to Russia, then we’re supposed to defend you from Russia? So, I think it’s very bad… I think the people of Germany are very unhappy about it,” he said.

Poland on the other hand is not accepting any of the energy from the Russian pipeline.

“So, that sends a signal right there. With all of that being said, we expect to get along with Russia. We expect to get along with everybody,” Trump said.