WEB DESK
The Germany has welcomed US President Joe Biden’s plan to stop the planned withdrawal of thousands of US troops from its soil.
“We have always been convinced that American troops being stationed here in Germany serves European and transatlantic security and hence is in our mutual interest,” Steffen Seibert Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman said on Friday.
US troops have been stationed in Germany since World War II. Former-President Donald Trump’s plan to withdraw almost a third of the soldiers based in Germany were met with heavy criticism.
Biden said on Thursday that the withdrawal would be halted at least until his incoming Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had completed a review of US military presence around the globe.
Germany has long been a key base of operations for the US military. It hosts several military facilities including the Ramstein Air Base and the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center — the largest American hospital outside the US — both in the western state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
Trump’s announcement that he would remove 9,500 of the 34,500 troops based in the country met fierce opposition from Congress and the US military top brass.
The former president called Germany, a NATO ally, a “delinquent” for failing to spend 2% of its GDP on defense.
Following the announcement, the Pentagon began a review of how the withdrawal would occur, but no changes or reductions took place before Biden came into office.