No confirmed move of US Army from Germany to SHAPE in Casteau

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The Belgian government has never received any official communication from the United States concerning the move from Germany to Belgium of the American command for Europe (Eucom), announced last year by the Trump administration, Defense Minister Ludivine Dedonder said on Wednesday.

The United States has so far not yet officially communicated with Belgium on this subject, she said in the House Defense Committee in response to questions from MPs Kattrin Jadin (MR ), Jasper Pillen (Open Vld), Theo Francken (N-VA) and Christophe Lacroix (PS). It is premature to prepare concrete plans about this move, announced last June added L. Dedonder (PS).

The American President at the time, the Republican Donald Trump had announced that he wanted to greatly reduce the American forces in Germany to 25,000 soldiers. Among these 34,500 soldiers, Mr. Trump wanted to repatriate 6,400 to the United States and reposition 5,600 in other NATO countries in particular in Italy and Belgium.

The US Military Command in Europe (Eucom), currently based in Stuttgart (western Germany), was supposed to move to Mons and join the Main Headquarters Allied Forces Europe (SHAPE), still commanded by an American general currently Tod Wolters.

The arrival at the White House of Democrat Joe Biden resulted in these plans being frozen.

Ms. Dedonder and her colleague from Foreign Affairs, Sophie Wilmès (MR), had previously indicated that they had not received any official communication concerning a possible move of American troops to Belgium.

Besides the arrival for a moment imagined of the Eucom in Casteau, there had been question of the possible arrival of an anti-aircraft artillery battalion and an engineer battalion at the Chièvres aerodrome, between Mons and Ath.