Europe has replaced most US cuts within Nato, top commander says

European Nato allies have mostly replaced the assets that the US has cut from its rescue plans in case of a war in Europe, Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe John Stringer said in an interview.

Stringer made the assurance ahead of the alliance’s summit in Ankara next week, at which allies will try to smooth over recent announcements by the US signalling that it is pivoting away from the continent.

“European allies have definitely stepped up in terms of backfilling the adjustment in the US forces in Europe,” said Stringer, adding this was a demonstration of “a stronger Europe in a stronger Nato”.

The US recently announced massive cuts to the forces it would send to Europe in case of war or crisis, prompting the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation’s military command to ask European countries to make the forces they had not yet committed to the alliance known.

Stringer, a former Royal Air Force fighter pilot, said that in the categories in which Europe could not provide equivalent forces, they would be looking to match the effect with different assets.

Burden-sharing and burden-shifting “is now being done in a sensible, proportionate way, absolutely driven by military logic”, he said, emphasising the preparedness of European allies for the shift in US priorities and commitments.