The US is set to inform allies by the end of the week how it plans to reduce the number of troops it can have ready for NATO as part of an update to the alliance’s global force model.

The announcement follows recent troop redeployments that have raised questions about a gradual US withdrawal from Europe’s defence in order to focus on other theatres of operation.

Diplomats at NATO remain in limbo after the US administration announced plans to cut 5,000 troops in Germany and redeploy a 4,000-strong rotational force previously set to go to Poland.

The US is now expected to formally revise its troop numbers after diplomats in Brussels and national capitals tried to make sense of the surprise announcements.

The NATO force model provides an overview of the national forces that can be made available in peacetime, crisis and conflict to support the alliance, and is regularly updated. A normally routine exercise, the update will formalise the surprise announcements from the US administration.

“The debate on the NATO force model started a year ago. This is why Europe is spending so much more to end the over-reliance on one ally,” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said on Wednesday, adding it was “normal business.”

Three NATO diplomats said they expected the global force posture update by the end of the week. NATO military officials will then discuss the changes when they meet on Friday, a fourth source added.

Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said that the US is lowering the number of troops available to NATO as part of a “comprehensive, multi-layered process” focused on the US posture in Europe.

The US can reduce troop levels in Europe to 76,000 without congressional approval. It remains unclear how many US forces are currently stationed on the continent, though one source familiar with the figures said the number is believed to be around 80,000.

“We should expect there to be a redeployment of US forces over time as allies build their capacity,” General Alexus G. Grynkewich, Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR), said on Tuesday, after a meeting of the alliance’s 32 military chiefs in Brussels. The process will take “several years,” he added.

“I had a session today with the Baltics and Poland to go over what some of the options were and how we might array capabilities on the eastern flank,” the SACEUR said.

(at, aw)