A senior Pentagon official pressed NATO allies Thursday (August 27, 2026) to explain how they were stepping up to meet U.S. demands to take responsibility for Europe’s defence as Washington reviews its forces on the continent.
The force review was announced by Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth in June amid U.S. anger at the response of European nations to the war with Iran, including restrictions on U.S. forces using their bases at the start of the conflict. U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has raised fears among allies that it could cut back its forces in Europe after launching a six-month review in July of its deployments. “The spirit that we come in is obviously one… of consultation, of engagement. We want to hear from our allies,” U.S.
Defence Under Secretary Elbridge Colby said on a visit for talks with NATO’s headquarters in Brussels. “We’re actually having a kind of down-to-business conversation about how we go forward together in a world in which Europe, which is obviously a very wealthy continent, can and is taking primary responsibility for its own conventional defence,” Mr. Colby said. He said Washington was pushing “to advance and accelerate what’s happening, and then to look at the strategic posture at a high level of the U.S. forces in Europe”.
Washington also said in May it would withdraw 5,000 troops from Germany, but Mr.
“Let’s look at some of things like access, basing, and overflights, where there is a lot of good, but there are some things that we need to work out, to make sense going forward,” Mr. Colby said. Trump later said he was sending the same number to neighbouring Poland.
