According to media reports, the Russian delegation in Saudi Arabia presented a demand to the U.S. delegation to reduce troop deployments near Russia's borders, including NATO battle groups in the Baltic states. The Americans refused.

NATO battle groups were established at the 2016 Warsaw Summit after Russia invaded Crimea. Multinational battalion-sized battle groups were deployed to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. Additional allied units were also sent to the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania.

Before invading Ukraine in 2022, Russian leader Vladimir Putin demanded NATO revert to its 1997 format, before eastern flank members joined the alliance.

The Russian delegation presented a similar demand to the Americans in Saudi Arabia last week, which was rejected. Putin is not expected to abandon his goal, and negotiations are not yet over.

"It's probably not wise to speculate on just how far the Americans, particularly Donald Trump, are ready to be pushed to accommodate Russian interests. But this particular decision is not theirs alone to make. If you look at the eight battlegroups that are now forward land forces in Eastern Europe, about 85 percent of the troops are Europeans or Canadians. So it is not as if the Americans can unilaterally decide this or order the Europeans to go home," said Tony Lawrence, a researcher at the International Center for Defense and Security (ICDS) in Tallinn.

Lawrence is convinced the forward deployment of units in countries bordering Russia serves European interests.

"Yes, it definitely is. This is the means by which we demonstrate our resolve and commitment to the security of the whole of Europe," he said.

The leaders of France and the United Kingdom are visiting the U.S. president this week. The UK leads the NATO battle group stationed in Estonia and a French subunit is based here too.

To what extent could the Americans influence their allies to withdraw their forces? U.S. expert Andreas Kaju considers this highly unlikely.

"I tend to think that what we are witnessing these days in Europe is rather a sudden and rapid increase in solidarity among European defense contributors. Even if the Americans were to do something drastic — which we do not know — I believe that European allies' solidarity would only grow stronger as a result," he said.

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