The price of security

As if the pandemic has not destabilised the world enough, Donald Trump has ordered a reduction in US troop numbers in Germany from 34,500 to 25,000. Since the president came to office pledging to pull America out of the many theatres in which it was engaged, this should come as no surprise. With an election approaching in which the way he has handled the coronavirus crisis will loom large, Mr Trump wants at least to show he has delivered on that central promise.

Jens Stoltenberg, the Nato secretary general, played down concerns that this would happen any time soon, and nor did he think it undermined US commitment to the alliance. There is wishful thinking here – that Mr Trump may be gone by the end of the year and a more amenable Joe Biden will be occupying the White House. But Mr Trump’s four years have shown Europeans that they cannot continue to depend on the US for their security and must make a far bigger contribution themselves. The country that consistently fails to spend up to the Nato target of two per cent of GDP is Germany, and this rankles with Washington.

EU defence ministers are evidently aware of the threat since they spent yesterday discussing the potential for enhanced defence and intelligence co-operation in the bloc. A leaked internal memo calls for deeper integration amid concern that the stand-off between the US and China will worsen in the coming months as blame is apportioned for the pandemic and its consequences. But the EU has spent years talking about the need for greater defence integration without willing the means to enhance its own security. Mr Trump’s action is a reminder that, if it wants to stand up to Russia, it needs to pay to do so.