Fewer American troops in Europe will not burden the continent's defense, said General Alexus Grinkevich, Supreme Commander of NATO's Allied Forces in Europe, dismissing concerns about US commitments to the alliance, writes UNN with reference to Politico.
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"I am confident in the capabilities" of Europe and Canada, the four-star US general said at the alliance's military operations command in southern Belgium. "We are ready today to meet any crisis or contingency," he noted.
Grinkevich's comments come amid concerns about the expected withdrawal of American troops from Europe as a result of US President Donald Trump's upcoming defense strategy. The so-called posture review is expected to include the redeployment of American troops from Europe to the Indo-Pacific region.
This shift has already begun, with the US withdrawing 800 troops from Romania last month – a decision Bucharest urged Washington to reverse.
Concerns about the reduction of 85,000 American troops in Europe also reflect a broader debate about Washington's commitment to the alliance during Trump's tenure.
Trump praised NATO allies' pledge to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP by 2035, but previously questioned the alliance's collective defense promise, was ambiguous about the recent Russian drone invasion of Poland, and repeatedly pressured European allies to step up, the publication points out.
Earlier this year, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated: "Now Putin has started invading beyond NATO borders. One thing I can tell you is that the US is not going to intervene with troops or anything like that."
European leaders are privately concerned about Trump-backed efforts to end the war in Ukraine, which some believe are currently benefiting Russia, the publication writes.
These turbulent relations resurfaced this week after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio skipped a meeting of NATO foreign ministers – something that has almost never happened since NATO's founding in 1949. Meanwhile, his deputy criticized allies at a closed meeting for prioritizing their own defense industries instead of continuing to spend on American weaponry, the publication points out.
Almost two-thirds of European defense spending goes to the US, but the EU is trying to change this through programs aimed at stimulating local production, the publication writes.
Privately, some European allies are concerned about the US, but publicly they insist that NATO is still a force to be reckoned with.
"All NATO processes are functioning flawlessly," said Polish Deputy Defense Minister Paweł Zalewski. "In a practical sense, the Americans are fulfilling their obligations very well."
Grinkevich insisted that any political tensions related to peace talks "had no impact... on the ability to carry out our mission from NATO's perspective." He added that allies' pledges to increase their defense spending mean that NATO "will be more ready tomorrow, and we will be more ready the day after tomorrow" to counter Russia and respond to any further troop withdrawals.
Last month, US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker caused surprise when he said he "looks forward to the day when Germany... says 'we are ready to take the position of Supreme Commander of NATO's Allied Forces,'" which is another example of Washington pushing European allies to do more while the US hints it may step back, the publication notes.
The Trump administration reportedly considered not appointing an American general as Supreme Commander of NATO's Allied Forces in Europe earlier this year before nominating Grinkevich. The Supreme Commander of NATO's Allied Forces in Europe has always been a US officer, as this position commands all allied forces in Europe and oversees American nuclear deterrence forces on the continent.
"There's always a rebalancing of positions that different countries hold in the alliance," Grinkevich said, adding that "it's natural that some of that will happen... over the next few months [and] few years."
"As for who holds the SACEUR position," he told reporters, "I would prefer to just leave those decisions to the politicians."
Europe's concerns about the reliability of its alliance with the US come as the full-scale war in Ukraine approaches its fourth year, intelligence assessments warn of Russia's readiness to attack a NATO country by the end of the decade, and Russia-linked hybrid attacks are intensifying across the continent.
Putin said this week that he is "ready" for war with Europe.
Grinkevich said he was "concerned" that Russia could test NATO's collective defense "in the near term," as well as "in the medium and, obviously, long term."
Russia's hybrid attacks are a "real problem," he said, and reiterated the call of several European capitals to react more decisively to hybrid activity.
"We're also thinking about being proactive," he said, declining to provide further details. "If Russia is trying to create dilemmas for us, then perhaps there are ways we could create dilemmas for them."