WASHINGTON, May 5. /TASS/. The US decision to cut its military contingent in Germany by 5,000 troops was "a further step in the decline of NATO," Anatol Lieven, Director, Eurasia Program, at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, told TASS.

"In itself, this is not an important step. The US will not leave Ramstein, the biggest US air base outside the US itself and a vital hub for US operations in the Middle East; and Germany is not going to expel them. More significant is the news that the US is reducing arms supplies to Europe and Ukraine because its stocks have been diminished radically as a result of the war on Iran," the political scientist said.

"This withdrawal is, however, a further step in the decline of NATO. And while the US will continue to defend existing NATO members (if only because it wants to keep the bases at Ramstein, Naples, Fairford and elsewhere), Europeans are - rightly - very unlikely to believe that under [US President Donald] Trump at least, the US will back up any European force for Ukraine."

On May 1, the Pentagon ordered the reduction of the contingent of American troops in Germany by 5,000 people within the next 6-12 months. In total, about 38,000 American soldiers and officers are stationed in Germany.

The Pentagon and the United States European Command did not respond to a request from TASS to clarify whether Washington had abandoned previous plans to deploy intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles in Germany. According to some reports in the Western press, such plans will not be realized. According to others, such American weapons may still appear in Germany.

As indicated in a joint statement by Washington and Berlin, the United States was going to deploy from 2026 new longer-range fire weapons in Germany than anywhere in Europe. It was assumed that these military units would be armed with SM-6 ballistic missiles, Tomahawk cruise missiles and experimental hypersonic weapons in non-nuclear equipment, according to a document released in 2024.