At talks in Saudi Arabia, Russia allegedly asked the United States to withdraw NATO forces from Eastern Europe — in order to “normalize relations”. Although the American delegation rejected the proposal, it raises concerns about the policy course taken by the new White House administration.
The Financial Times writes about this.
Romanian Presidentʼs Chief of Staff and Security Advisor Cristian Diaconescu said that concerns remain about what concessions US President Donald Trump is willing to make for the sake of some kind of agreement with Russia.
He believes that the leaders of France and Great Britain will focus on this issue during their upcoming visits to Washington and convince Trump not to take this step. However, as the FT writes, the eastern NATO countries are seriously concerned about the recent statements of the Trump administration — from the rejection of Ukraineʼs membership in NATO to the promise to normalize relations with Russia.
One of the unnamed Eastern European officials said they were not sure if they would be heard by the White House. They feared that this was Russiaʼs way of tricking the US in exchange for progress on Ukraine.
Diaconescu added that the Russians asked the Americans to withdraw security guarantees provided to countries that joined NATO after 1997. Moscow made such a request before a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but the American side refused at the time.
The British The Economist and the American Financial Times wrote on February 17 that there are fears among European officials that Trump will agree to withdraw US troops from the Baltic states and, perhaps, "further west", as Putin wants.
- The United States currently has more than 100 000 troops in Europe, a number that has increased since Russia began a full-scale war against Ukraine.
- Poland has assured that the US will not reduce the number of troops on NATOʼs eastern flank.
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