Germany and France intend to strengthen cooperation in the field of nuclear deterrence

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron intend to continue strengthening cooperation between their countries in the field of nuclear deterrence.

The German-French Defense and Security Council, headed by Mertz and Macron, met yesterday morning in a maintenance hall at the Norfenisch military base near the German city of Cologne, to take a decision regarding Germany’s participation for the first time in a French nuclear exercise.

The group, in which the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Ministers of Defense also participated, met between two French Rafale fighters and two German Eurofighters. Rafale fighters are designed to be capable of carrying nuclear weapons.

The day before yesterday, the fighters had already participated in a small exercise with the aim of starting nuclear cooperation in practice, and they were refueled in French airspace by a French refueling plane, and the entire process took about two hours.

Macron had offered European partners years ago to join the French nuclear umbrella, and only France and Britain possess nuclear weapons in western Europe. In Germany, there are currently American nuclear bombs as part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) nuclear deterrence system, as the German armed forces provide fighters for use in case of emergency, and cooperation with France aims to complement and strengthen NATO’s deterrence.

France also agreed with Britain on nuclear cooperation, and seven other countries welcomed the French offer: Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway.