00:00Well, good morning, Meredith. And of course, the implications are, well, they could be quite big,
00:04but we don't know the full detail yet. And that is the key question and the real concern.
00:08We know that decision last week was made sort of in the midst of a very public feud with the
00:14German
00:14Chancellor Friedrich Mertz, Donald Trump and the United States, saying that they would cut around
00:185,000 US troops from German territory within the next six to nine months, and then a further
00:24decision by the US president that he would cut much further. The implications for generally NATO
00:31security is as of yet unknown, which says an awful lot about the nature of this decision.
00:36But I'm joined now, as you mentioned earlier, by Martin O'Donnell, the colonel here,
00:40who is spokesperson for the Supreme Allied Commander of European Forces. Good morning,
00:44Colonel O'Donnell. Can you tell us what you've been told four days on from that decision last week?
00:51Yes. So first, thanks for having me. Great to be with you. So things still stand,
00:56as the NATO spokesperson said in her statement over the weekend, NATO still working with the United
01:01States to understand the implications of the decision made on made on Friday. And so as you
01:08had already mentioned, six to 12 months, all those things are still being under consideration. I would
01:14provide a few things for context. So one, on the same day that the US decided and made the
01:20announcement that it would reduce troops, it was actually, in fact, a unit, a brigade-sized unit,
01:25so we're talking thousands of troops, American troops, cased its colors to deploy here to Europe,
01:31an armored brigade from Texas on that same day. And so what I would offer to your viewers is that
01:39this type of rotation of forces, forces moving in, forces moving out of theater, very, very common,
01:45something we're very, very used to.
01:47Yeah, indeed. And of course, we know that European allies have been bracing themselves for a troop
01:51cut of this nature at some point. But the problem here is that it came out of the blue in
01:56the middle
01:56of a feud with any consultation with NATO allies. And that's something that many NATO diplomats have
02:02said to me over the past year or so would be kind of the worst nightmare, that Donald Trump would
02:06announce it after being on a phone call with President Putin of Russia, and that it would be done
02:11without the consultation with his allies. And that's kind of what's happened.
02:15Yeah, well, I would say a few things. One, you know, you heard from Germany's leader himself,
02:19who said he wasn't surprised by the decision. And Europe has been moving out, trying to strengthen
02:26up, make a stronger Europe, make a stronger NATO for some time. In addition, the United States has said,
02:32look, this isn't happening overnight. This will occur over a six to 12-month period. And those details,
02:39like I said, are still being worked. And how come they're only being worked out
02:42right now? Because it's four days since the announcement. And so it appears that the strategy
02:47is sort of on short supply. Well, so the president made a decision, right? And now on the United States
02:53side, just like any leader of any country would. And so now, obviously, the United States is working
02:58to determine how to execute the president's decision. And how come there hasn't been any more details so far
03:04about where it could sort of impact NATO force posture?
03:09Yeah, so I mean, I think that's a question better for the United States to answer just in terms of,
03:14okay, you know, where are they at? From a NATO perspective, in terms of our deterrence and
03:19defensive plans, this doesn't change anything. We're still able, we will still be able to now,
03:24we are able now, and we will still be able to deter and defend all alliance territory.
03:30Okay, so let's look at the morale element, because obviously, the last few months have been very
03:33confrontation when it comes to the United States and NATO allies in particular, obviously, we saw
03:38Greenland, that really, really difficult sort of conflict between the United States, Denmark,
03:42and others in particular Nordic allies. And then you have this decision to withdraw troops. And you
03:47have this constant sort of barracking from the US president about NATO allies not joining in the war
03:52in Iran. What does that mean for the overall alliance?
03:54Yeah, so I mean, one cannot escape the news. But I think what all of the countries within NATO,
04:02all 32 countries need to understand is, the military members who I represent within within
04:08the alliance, we are focused on our mission, which is deterring and defending. And so I would offer a
04:14couple things, you know, on that note. One, you mentioned Greenland, there's 1000s of troops right
04:18now in Greenland, soon to be in Sweden, in the Arctic, who are exercising under Arctic Sentry,
04:24two separate exercises. We, Supreme Headquarters, Ally Power Europe are starting today, a command
04:30post exercise, steadfast deterrence. And so those are the types of things that we're focused on,
04:36you know, our aircraft are, are defending as part of Eastern Sentry, our ships are defending as part
04:43of Baltic Sentry. Those are the types of things that as military members, you know, we are focused on.
04:48Okay, Colonel Martin O'Donnell, thank you very much for joining us here at NATO headquarters.
04:52Back to you, Marid.
04:54Shauna, thank you so much. And thank you to your guests, Colonel Martin O'Donnell there at the
04:58NATO headquarters.
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