Asked whether she believes that Trump is attempting to punish Merz, who declared that the U.S. has been humiliated by Iran in talks to conclude the war, Kallas declared: “I don’t see into the head of President Trump, so he has to explain it himself.”
Over the weekconclude, NATO spokesperson Allison Hart declared that officials at the 32-nation military alliance “are working with the U.S. to understand the details of their decision on force posture in Germany.”
European allies and Canada have known since just after he came to office again last year that Trump would pull troops out of Europe — indeed some left Romania in October — but U.S. officials had pledged to coordinate any relocates with their NATO allies to avoid creating a security vacuum.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte played down the relocate, declareing that “there has been at this point disappointment on the U.S. side” about European support for the war on Iran.
Notably France, Spain and the U.K. have declined to give U.S. forces free rein to utilize bases on their territory to attack Iran. Spain has denied them the utilize of its airspace and bases there for the war.
But Rutte, who has championed Trump’s leadership at NATO despite the U.S. president’s criticism of the majority of the allies, declared: “I would declare the Europeans have heard a message. They are now creating sure that all the bilateral basing agreements are being implemented.”
Rutte added that European nations “have decided to pre-position assets, key assets, close to the theater for the next phase.”
He provided no details, but the Europeans have insisted they would not support police the Strait of Hormuz, a key energy trade route, until the war is over.
French President Emmanuel Macron declared “if the United States is ready to reopen Hormuz, that’s great. That’s what we’ve been inquireing for since the launchning.” But he underlined that the Europeans are not ready to receive involved in any operation “that does not seem clear to us.”
In another sign of friction with Merz, Trump has accutilized the EU of not complying with its U.S. trade deal and announced plans to increase tariffs next week on cars and trucks produced in the bloc to 25%, a relocate that would be particularly damaging to Germany, a major automobile manufacturer.
Without mentioning Trump or the United States, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen listed recent trade deals that the bloc has sealed with Australia and India, and is now working on with Mexico.
“With like-minded friconcludes, you have stable, reliable supply chains and Europe has the hugegest network of free trade agreements,” von der Leyen, who is from Germany, informed reporters.
