Germany ruling party criticises Trump’s move to cut US troops

BERLIN: Senior lawmakers from German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling conservative bloc on Saturday criticised President Donald Trump’s decision to order the US military to remove 9,500 troops from Germany.

The move would reduce US troops numbers in Germany to 25,000, from 34,500.

“The plans once again show that the Trump administration is neglecting an elementary leadership task: the involvement of alliance partners in decision-making processes,” Johann Wadephul, foreign policy spokesman for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, told Reuters.

All Nato partners benefited from the cohesion of the alliance, and only Russia and China gain from discord, Wadephul said, adding: “This should be given more attention in Washington”.

Wadephul also spoke of a “further wake-up call” to Europeans to position themselves better in terms of security policy.

The German Foreign Ministry declined to comment.

A US official said on Friday the move was the result of months of work by the top US military officer, General Mark Milley, and had nothing to do with tensions between Trump and Merkel.

The withdrawal, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, is the latest twist in relations between Berlin and Washington, which have often been strained during Trump’s presidency. Trump has pressed Germany to raise defence spending and accused Berlin of being a “captive” of Russia due to its energy reliance.

Meanwhile Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Saturday he hoped that some of the US troops that are set to be removed from Germany will be reassigned to Poland.

“The decision is now on the US side.” CHILD ABUSE RING: Eleven people have been arrested in Germany on suspicion of sexually abusing children and filming their actions, police said on Saturday.

Hard disks containing up to 500 terabytes of data, including videos and photos, were seized from the cellar of a 27-year-old man from the western city of Muenster.