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ADVERTISEMENTNATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Monday denied any indication that the United States was reviewing its military presence on the continent, saying instead Washington would maintain “a very strong conventional” deployment in Europe.
“What we know is that the US, next to Europe, of course also has to take care of the Middle East, has to take care of the Indo-pacific and it is only logical that over time as we are building up that the US will pivot so much more towards Asia,” Rutte told journalists at a press conference in Vilnius on Monday.
“But I am convinced there will be a very strong conventional US presence in Europe, next to the nuclear presence,” the NATO chief added, speaking on the margins of a summit in Vilnius with the Bucharest Nine (B9) format and Nordic countries.
Rutte’s comments come amid long-standing allegations – spurred by US-Russia talks to end Moscow’s war in Ukraine – that Washington would reduce or withdraw its troops in Europe.
Last February, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth warned Europeans during a visit to Poland that US troops on the continent were “important,” and that “you can’t make an assumption that America’s presence will last forever.”
The US had nearly 84,000 service members in Europe in early 2025, according to a report from the Council on Foreign Relations, which also specifies that over the course of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, now in its fourth year, the total number of troops has ranged between approximately 75,000 and 105,000 military personnel.
In Vilnius, Lithuania’s President Gitanas Nausėda echoed Rutte’s remarks, saying he had not received any indication of a US troop withdrawal or reduction in Europe.
Nausėda said there were so far 1,000 US soldiers “standing shoulder to should with the soldiers of Germany, Norway, and NATO’s Enhanced Forward Presence,” which includes battlegroups in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.
“We are ready to increase this number if there is political will from the US administration,” Nausėda added.
