US President Donald Trump said today that the reduction in the number of US military personnel in Romania “is not very big”. The question was asked to Trump by journalists on board the “Air Force One“ plane, after the Pentagon and the Romanian Ministry of Defense announced this decision yesterday, reported the Romanian news channel Digi 24, quoted by BTA.
When asked by a journalist what was behind the decision to reduce the American military presence in Romania, Trump replied: “You have to ask…I mean, I could tell you, but it's not very big, it's not something significant“.
The United States announced yesterday a reduction in the number of American military personnel in Romania, specifically at the “Mihail Kogalniceanu“ air base near Constanta, even as the conflict in Ukraine continues to wreak havoc on the country's border, Digi 24 notes.
The US Department of War confirmed the reduction in US troops in Romania, but clarified that this does not constitute a US withdrawal from Europe, nor is it a signal of a reduction in the commitment to NATO or to Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which states that an attack on a member of the Alliance is considered an attack on all NATO members.
The US Army in Europe said in a statement quoted by Reuters that “the 2nd Infantry Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division will redeploy as scheduled to its base in Kentucky without being replaced”.
The Romanian Ministry of Defense specified that despite the decision not to rotate one of the US Army brigades, about 1,000 US soldiers will remain permanently stationed in the country.