The number of American troops in Estonia has dropped from around 500 to 700 personnel to fewer than 100, according to Estonian broadcaster ETV. No continued U.S. military presence beyond 2026 has been confirmed.
Estonian officials said a new rotational U.S. contingent is expected to arrive later this summer and stay until the end of the year. Its size and makeup have not been decided.
The departing troops were stationed mainly at Tapa military base in northern Estonia, with others at sites including Camp Reedo in Võru. Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur said the bilateral defense agreement between Washington and Tallinn is unchanged. Under it, U.S. troops have served in Estonia on a rotational basis since 2022, typically in units of 500 to 700.
Waiting on the Pentagon
The cut comes while the Pentagon runs a six-month review of U.S. defense policy and force posture in Europe. Its results are expected to shape future deployments across the continent, including in the Baltic region.
Pevkur said he was told in talks with NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe and the commander of U.S. Army Europe that the next rotation should arrive in summer. “The next rotation should still move to Estonia during the summer,” he said. Anything beyond this year, he added, depends on that review.
ETV reported the next rotation is also tied to a new U.S. brigade headed for Poland, though the timeline for that deployment is unclear. Earlier rotations to Estonia generally came from American brigades based in Poland or Romania. Pevkur noted that setting up a new brigade in Poland, and the rotations that follow, would take longer than a year. It is therefore not clear which unit would supply future rotations.
Kalev Stoicescu, who chairs the Estonian Parliament’s National Defence Committee, said decisions about U.S. forces in Europe rest with the White House and follow Washington’s strategic interests. If American forces stay in Europe, he said, they should remain on NATO’s eastern flank.
Pevkur does not expect major announcements on the U.S. presence at the coming NATO summit in Ankara. Until long-term decisions arrive, Estonia will lean on its own defense capabilities and the NATO battlegroups that rotate through the Baltic states.
Part of a wider shift
Estonia is not the only place affected. Lithuania has just finished withdrawing more than 1,000 U.S. troops and their equipment after a scheduled rotation. The United States also plans to cut about 5,000 troops from Germany over the next six to twelve months, including a combat brigade and a missile unit that had been slated for deployment in Europe.
