US defense secretary says Germany is ‘highly valued’ station for American troops

BERLIN — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told Germany’s Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer in his first conversation with her since taking up his new post that Germany is “highly valued” as a station for American soldiers, the Defense Ministry said Thursday.

Last year, then President Donald Trump ordered the reduction of the U.S. military contingent stationed in Germany by more than 25 percent and the Pentagon has been studying how that could be done.

German officials have hoped that order will be rescinded by the new administration, and the German Defense Ministry said that in his call with Kramp-Karrenbauer on Wednesday, Austin “emphasized that Germany is highly valued as a station and that American soldiers feel very comfortable here.”

“The U.S. continues to consider its presence in Germany as an important part of joint security,” the Defense Ministry said in a readout of the call.

About 34,500 U.S. troops are stationed in Germany, which includes key American military facilities like the Ramstein Air Base and the headquarters for U.S. European Command and U.S. Africa Command .

DoD spokesman John Kirby said Austin “expressed his gratitude to Germany for continuing to serve as a great host for U.S. forces, and expressed his desire for a continued dialogue on U.S. force posture in Germany.”

The two officials also discussed a range of other issues including NATO cooperation, and the security situations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Kirby said Austin wanted to “reinforce the value the United States places on the bilateral defense relationship with one of our closest NATO Allies.”

After Trump announced his order to reduce troops in Germany in late July, then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper said some of those units could begin moving within “a matter of weeks.” But so far, the 2nd Cavalry Regiment , AFRICOM and EUCOM headquarters and others are still in Germany.

U.S. Soldiers assigned to 4th Battalion, 319th Field Artillery Regiment, 173rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), emplace an M119A3 Howitzer during Saber Junction 20 (SJ20) at Hohenfels Training Area, Germany, Aug. 15, 2020. Saber Junction 20 is a 7th Army Training Command-conducted, U.S. Army Europe- directed annual exercise designed to assess the readiness of the U.S. Army’s 173rd Airborne Brigade to execute unified land operations in a joint, combined environment, and to promote interoperability with participating allies and partner nations. This year’s exercise will take place primarily at 7ATC’s Grafenwoehr and Hohenfels Training Areas in Bavaria. U.S military forces stationed in Europe routinely conduct these types of exercises with allied and partner nations to enhance interoperability and readiness.

Lawmakers at the time questioned the wisdom of such a move and suggested it would be unlikely to survive should Trump lose the election.

“I do believe that if there’s a change in the administration, that this will not happen,” Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., told Military Times on Oct. 15 during a press call.

Weeks later, Gallego and his colleagues passed their version of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act , which includes a provision that no troops be removed from Germany until the Defense Department submits a detailed timeline and financial plan for the withdrawal, then carries out a waiting period of 120 days.

Though the Pentagon had proposed moving 12,000 troops out of Germany, officials could not offer details about the cost or the proposed timeline for carrying out the plan.

“I’m really having a problem connecting the dots with whether this is going to solve a problem, that I don’t think exists,” Jim Langevin, D-R.I., said during a House Armed Services Committee hearing in September. “In fact, I think it’s going to create more problems than anything it’s going to solve.”

Both sides of the aisle were skeptical, as Pentagon officials declined to offer any details other than a cost estimate in the single-digit billions, repeating Esper’s July remarks that rotational deployments farther East made more sense for Russia deterrence.

“... there needs to be an overall strategic plan that is coordinated with allies, rather than have a bunch of rationalizations after the fact,” then-HASC ranking member Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, said at the time.

柏林——德国国防部周四表示，美国国防部长劳埃德·奥斯汀在就任新职后与德国国防部长安妮格雷特·克兰普-卡伦鲍尔的首次通话中表示，德国作为美国士兵的驻地“备受重视”。

去年，时任总统唐纳德·特朗普下令将驻德美军人数减少 25% 以上，五角大楼一直在研究如何实现这一目标。

德国官员一直希望新政府能够撤销这项命令。德国国防部表示，奥斯汀在周三与克兰普-卡伦鲍尔的通话中“强调德国作为驻地备受重视，美国士兵在这里感到非常舒适”。

“美国继续将驻德军事存在视为共同安全的重要组成部分，”国防部在通话纪要中表示。

约有 34,500 名美军驻扎在德国，其中包括拉姆施泰因空军基地、美国欧洲司令部和美国非洲司令部等重要的美国军事设施。

美国国防部发言人约翰·柯比表示，奥斯汀“对德国继续为美军提供优质服务表示感谢，并表达了希望就美军在德国的部署情况继续进行对话的愿望”。

两位官员还讨论了一系列其他问题，包括北约合作以及阿富汗和伊拉克的安全局势。

柯比表示，奥斯汀希望“加强美国对我们最亲密的北约盟友之一的双边防务关系的重视”。

7月下旬，特朗普宣布下令减少驻德美军后，时任国防部长马克·埃斯珀表示，部分部队可能在“几周内”开始撤离。但到目前为止，第二骑兵团、非洲司令部、欧洲司令部以及其他一些部队仍然驻扎在德国。

2020年8月15日，在德国霍亨费尔斯训练区举行的“军刀交汇20”（Saber Junction 20，简称SJ20）演习中，隶属于美国陆军第173空降步兵旅战斗队第319野战炮兵团第4营的美军士兵正在架设一门M119A3榴弹炮。“军刀交汇20”是由美国陆军第七训练司令部组织、美国陆军欧洲司令部指导的年度演习，旨在评估美国陆军第173空降旅在联合作战环境下执行统一陆地作战的战备状态，并促进与参演盟国和伙伴国的互操作性。今年的演习主要在巴伐利亚州的格拉芬沃尔和霍亨费尔斯训练区举行。驻欧美军经常与盟国和伙伴国举行此类演习，以增强互操作性和战备水平。

当时的立法者质疑此举是否明智，并表示如果特朗普输掉选举，这项措施不太可能继续实施。

“我相信，如果政府换届，这种情况就不会发生，”亚利桑那州民主党众议员鲁本·加列戈在10月15日的一次电话会议上告诉《军事时报》。

几周后，加列戈和他的同事们通过了他们版本的 2021 年国防授权法案，其中包括一项规定，即在国防部提交详细的撤军时间表和财务计划之前，不得从德国撤军，然后执行 120 天的等待期。

尽管五角大楼曾提议从德国撤出 12000 名士兵，但官员们无法提供有关该计划的成本或拟议时间表的详细信息。

“我真的很难理解这到底能否解决一个我认为根本不存在的问题，”吉姆·兰格文博士在9月份众议院军事委员会的听证会上说。“事实上，我认为它带来的问题比它能解决的问题还要多。”

双方都对此表示怀疑，因为五角大楼官员拒绝提供除数十亿美元成本估算之外的任何细节，并重复了埃斯珀7月份的言论，即在更东边的轮换部署对俄罗斯的威慑更有意义。

“……需要制定一个与盟友协调的总体战略计划，而不是事后进行一堆辩解，”时任众议院军事委员会资深成员、德克萨斯州共和党众议员麦克·索恩伯里当时表示。