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Germany must assume a leading military role in Europe, the country’s defense minister has said, emphasizing how Russia’s war in Ukraine has transformed Berlin’s strategic thinking.
Christine Lambrecht made her comments as Ukraine pressed ahead with its counter-offensive in the east of the country and Russia vowed to continue the invasion until all its military objectives are achieved.
The war has increased pressure on Germany to increase its contribution to the Western alliance, despite historical reservations about playing a larger role after World War II. Lambrecht argued that Berlin did so for reasons “to do with our size, our geographical location, our economic power, in short with our weight”.
In comments to the German Council on Foreign Relations, she added: “It makes us a leading power, whether we like it or not – also in the military sense.”
Lambrecht said the US would remain Europe’s main protector and there could be “no replacement for the US nuclear deterrent in the foreseeable future”.
Britain and France, both nuclear powers, have been Europe’s strongest military forces for more than 70 years.
But she argued that rising tensions between Washington and Beijing over Taiwan and a US pivot to the Asia-Pacific meant “we are being called upon to do more than before for Europe”. She added: “Germany is prepared to make a decisive contribution to fair burden sharing.”
Lambrecht acknowledged that Germany’s Nazi-era crimes and the “war of destruction” its army waged in Europe between 1939 and 1945 had turned “skepticism about the military into a kind of virtue”.
But she said Germany could only guarantee peace and freedom to its people if it abandoned its “old self-image” and defined security as “the central task of this country”.
Echoing a landmark speech this year by Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the defense minister said Germany needed to meet the Nato target of spending 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense “in the long term”, not just in the next few years.
“We must avoid a situation where in a few years we cannot afford to maintain the equipment we are buying now,” she said, reiterating plans to create three combat-ready army divisions by the early 2030s.
The success of the Ukrainian counter-offensive, which has recaptured more than 3,000 square kilometers of terrain in the east, has also raised expectations that the West will step up arms supplies to Kiev. Ukraine’s Southern Operations Command said Monday it had also liberated about 500 square kilometers of territory from Russia’s forces.
“The tone has certainly changed,” said a senior European diplomat. “You won’t really hear anyone speaking against more guns now, just a chorus of supporters and one or two die-hards.”
But some allies accuse Berlin of less than wholehearted support for Kiev.
Claudia Major, a military analyst at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, said many in central and eastern Europe felt Berlin’s aid had so far been “too slow, hesitant and small-scale”.
Lambrecht dismissed such accusations while reiterating that Berlin had no intention of meeting a request from Kiev for tanks. She added that no country had so far “supplied Western-built infantry fighting vehicles or main battle tanks”.
The defense minister also called for strict rules on military exports to be eased so that Germany can participate in European defense projects. “Which partner will co-invest with us in projects when he or she will always worry that we prevent the export [of the weapons]?”
Her speech came less than two weeks after Scholz’s cabinet formally announced the start of work on a national security strategy, the first in Germany’s history, which will redefine the country’s foreign and defense policy.
Lambrecht said the West must “draw the necessary conclusions” from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – that “we ourselves need strong, combat-ready troops so that we can defend ourselves and our alliance if we have to”.
She said Germans had grown accustomed to seeing the Bundeswehr as a kind of disaster relief organization, helping with pandemics, floods and forest fires and taking part in missions to places like Afghanistan and Mali. “But those times are over,” she added.
Additional reporting by Henry Foy and Polina Ivanova
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