Too much at stake for US military to quit Europe, Estonian minister says

Estonia’s defense minister Hanno Pevkur says the U.S. will keep its 80,000 troops in Europe, calling bases like Ramstein and Naples crucial to NATO’s eastern shield and American power projection despite Washington’s growing Indo-Pacific focus.

The United States may shift some of its forces toward the Indo-Pacific, but the value of its European footprint for guarding NATO’s eastern flank and projecting global power makes a full pull-out unlikely, Estonia’s defence minister Hanno Pevkur told Reuters on Monday.

Pevkur said there has been no talk inside NATO of reducing the roughly 80,000 U.S. troops stationed on the continent, even though Washington has signaled it wants to devote more attention to Asia. “I do not believe the U.S. will withdraw its troops from Europe,” he said.

In February, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told allies that “stark strategic realities” prevent America from concentrating primarily on Europe’s security—remarks that, along with Donald Trump’s warnings about shielding low-spending allies and his hesitation over continued aid to Ukraine, have unsettled European capitals. Still, Pevkur noted that Hegseth also reaffirmed NATO’s importance to Washington, which “means you need to be present.”

Large U.S. installations such as Naval Support Activity Naples and Ramstein Air Base remain critical to American global operations, Pevkur added, while U.S. units have rotated almost constantly through Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania since Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.

The Baltic states, annexed by the Soviet Union in the 1940s and alarmed by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, see the U.S. presence as essential. Estonia plans to raise defence spending to about 5.4 percent of GDP within four years—well above the NATO average of 2 percent. Pevkur argues Europe needs to hit roughly 4 percent to rebuild its military strength, but he doubts that target will emerge from NATO’s June summit, given heavy debt burdens and less urgency in countries far from Russia.

Trump has urged allies to commit 5 percent of GDP, while NATO’s incoming Secretary-General, Mark Rutte, says new capability goals point to spending “north of” 3 percent.

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