Congress defense bill defies Trump’s Troop withdrawal in Germany

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WASHINGTON, 04 December, 2020, (TON): The legislation could stymie Donald Trump's plans to pull almost 12,000 troops out of Germany. He has threatened to veto the bill because it also requires military bases named after Confederate leaders to be renamed.

U.S. lawmakers unveiled the final version of a massive annual defense policy bill on Thursday which would halt President Donald Trump’s plans to withdraw troops from Germany, setting the stage for a veto fight in the last weeks before he leaves office.

Trump called for a partial withdrawal of troops over the summer amid a long-running dispute with Berlin over its defense spending, which is far below the NATO target of 2% of the gross domestic product. Under his plan, nearly 12,000 of the 36,000 American soldiers in Germany would leave the country, a fallout from Trump’s long-simmering feud with Berlin over military spending.

But the legislation the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) says a troop pull-out can only occur 120 days after the defense secretary submits an analysis to Congress on the impact of the withdrawal. The deadline to withdraw troops is January 15, five days before Trump is set to leave the White House.

The bill, which was crafted by a group of Republican and Democrat lawmakers, would also complicate Trump's plans to bring back troops from Afghanistan and South Korea. It still needs to be passed by Congress.

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