Germany can be a “bridge of communication” in a European nuclear deterrence initiative

The President of the Munich International Security Conference, Wolfgang Ischinger, called for strengthening Europe’s participation in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) nuclear deterrence system, and believes that Germany has a special role in this.

Ischinger said, in statements to the German News Agency (DPA), that “France and Britain can contribute more with their nuclear weapons to the umbrella of nuclear deterrence that has, until now, relied mainly on the United States,” and added: “If that happens, it will be a signal from Europe to the Russians, Americans and Chinese that it is able to assert itself.”

Ischinger pointed out that Germany can play the role of a “communication bridge” between Europe and the United States to ensure that such theses are not misunderstood in Washington. He said: “The Americans may say: They are now allied with the French, so there is no longer a need for our nuclear weapons as a means of deterrence, and this must be prevented from happening.” It is noteworthy that Britain and France are the only two European countries that possess nuclear weapons, but nuclear deterrence within NATO depends to a large extent on the American arsenal, which It is estimated to include about 100 nuclear warheads stationed in Europe.

In 2020, during the first term of US President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron offered to hold talks with Germany and other partners in the European Union about European cooperation in the field of nuclear deterrence, but the initiative had little resonance at the time in Berlin.

Ischinger criticized both former Chancellor Angela Merkel and former Chancellor Olaf Scholz, saying: “I personally did not understand why neither of them sent his advisors or the Inspector General of the German Army to Paris with a clear mandate: seriously examine what the French are proposing. I believe that this must happen now, and not just as a German-French initiative,” stressing in return the need for such talks to be held secretly and “not in public.”