Germany pledges to become Europe’s defense backbone amid NATO shifts

This is the sixth installment in a series examining the challenges facing the NATO alliance.

While Germany has vowed to become a stronger military power within NATO, Berlin’s ambassador to Washington told Fox News Digital that the country is ready to assume greater responsibility for European security after decades in which the United States carried much of the alliance’s military burden.

“Germany is taking a step; we heard the call!” German Ambassador to the United States Jens Hanefeld told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Germany’s armed forces should be the strongest conventional army in Europe; This goal is now supported by Berlin’s new military strategy, Hanefeld said.

UK and German Defense Officials DEFEND MILITARY ASSEMBLY UNDER RUSSIAN THREATS

“Russia’s illegal war of aggression has shaken old certainties in Europe and Germany, while the international rules we rely on are being challenged,” Hanefeld said. he said. “This changes the strategic environment in which we operate.”

“Today, Germany is Ukraine’s biggest supporter,” Hanefeld said in his written responses. “Germany’s decision to have the strongest conventional army in Europe, firmly embedded in the NATO alliance, is an ongoing commitment.”

Germany’s historic military transformation

This change means a historical turning point for a country that built its post-war military identity on restriction.

After World War II, West Germany was allowed to rearm only within the framework of the Western alliance; It joined NATO in 1955, building the Bundeswehr as a force integrated into collective defense rather than an independent German force. For decades after reunification, Germany relied heavily on the US security umbrella and often fell short of NATO spending targets; This has fed repeated American complaints that Europe’s largest economy is not doing its part.

Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 forced Berlin to rethink this stance. The Chancellor of the period, Olaf Scholz, described this change as “Zeitenwende”, that is, a turning point. Merz is now seeking to turn this statement into a long-term military reinforcement.

Hanefeld said the changes taking place in Germany are often described as “Zeitenwende” but acknowledged that the transformation did not come easily, given the country’s history.

GERMAN DEFENSE MINISTER SAID THAT A MILITARY RETURN MAY BE MADE IF THE NUMBER OF VOLUNTEERS DECREASES

Howitzer ammunition is displayed during NATO training involving up to 7,500 soldiers from nine countries at a German military base in Munster, Germany, May 10, 2022. (Fabian Bimmer/Reuters)

Trump-Merz tension complicates NATO politics

This effort is unfolding against a backdrop of public friction between President Donald Trump and Merz; It’s a dispute that a US defense expert warns could complicate critical decisions aimed at deterring Russia.

Tensions escalated after Merz criticized Washington’s handling of the Iran war, said the United States was “humiliated” by Iran’s leadership in the negotiations, and questioned the Trump administration’s exit strategy. Although Merz said Iran should not obtain nuclear weapons, Trump responded by accusing Merz of being soft on Iran’s nuclear program.

The dispute quickly spilled over into NATO politics. Trump then threatened to review possible US troop reductions in Germany and said Merz should spend more time ending the war in Ukraine and “fixing his broken country” rather than commenting on Iran.

Then Merz added another irritant. Addressing a young audience in Germany, he said that he would not recommend his children “today” to live, study or work in the United States, citing America’s changing social climate, and that he remained a “big fan of America” ​​but that “My admiration is not increasing at the moment.”

GERMANY’S MERZ WILL ‘ADAPT’ TO TRUMP IN HIGH-POINT MEETING ON TARIFFS AND DEFENSE

President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz meet in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, on March 3, 2026, to discuss issues including recent U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Retired Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former U.S. European Command official, told Fox News Digital that Merz was wrong to speak about Trump that way at a time when Germany needs Washington’s support.

“Talking nonsense about the president at a meeting with schoolchildren in Germany, especially a president as notoriously moody as President Trump, is not professional diplomacy,” Montgomery said. he said. “Germany is not the big country in this relationship, the US is, and Merz needed to show more discipline as a national leader.”

Montgomery said these tensions risk affecting tough security decisions in Germany, including on long-range strike capabilities.

He criticized recent moves by the United States to delay or potentially cancel the rotational deployment of long-range strike systems to Germany, which he said would include Tomahawk, SM-6 or Precision Strike Missile capabilities. Reuters reported in May that Germany’s defense ministry said the deployment “has not been definitively cancelled.”

“These are both bad decisions made by our Department of Defense,” Montgomery said. “These are weapons systems that are incredibly important for deterring Russia.”

He said his goal was not to fight Russia in Poland, the Baltics or the Suwalki Pass, but to prevent Moscow from attacking in the first place.

“And these long-range assault weapons are a big part of that. And I’m very disappointed in our Department of Defense,” Montgomery said.

Despite briefings about possible reductions in U.S. involvement, the U.S.-Germany defense relationship remains strong and cooperation remains close, a source with knowledge of the matter said.

‘PUTIN IS PUSHING THE LIMITS’: EASTERN ALLIES ARE WARNING TRUMP NOT TO WITHDRAW US TROOPS

U.S. Army soldiers carry a simulated casualty into a MEDEVAC vehicle during NATO’s Sword 26 exercise, which tested new battlefield evacuation methods using unmanned aerial vehicles and AI-enabled medical technology on May 11, 2026, in Bemowo Piskie, Poland. (Kuba Stezycki/Reuters)

Europe’s future defense industrial base

“Having Germany develop a large, impressive defense industrial base is good for NATO, good for the security of the West, and even good for us,” Montgomery said, arguing that the “beating heart” of Europe’s future defense industrial base is likely Germany, not Poland, France or the United Kingdom.

Germany has long been at the center of the US military presence in Europe. Hanefeld cited Ramstein Air Base, Landstuhl Regional Medical Center and the training area at Grafenwöhr as examples of Germany’s continued importance to American power projection and NATO deterrence.

“These facilities serve U.S. national security interests, U.S. military personnel, and NATO’s ability to deter and defend,” he said. “I am sure that NATO will remain transatlantic at its core but will become more European in the next decade.”

At the 2025 NATO summit in The Hague, allies agreed to invest 5% of annual GDP on defense and defense-related spending by 2035, including core military spending and broader security investments. Merz had said that, according to the German government, the decision was intended to protect “freedom, security and prosperity”.

Hanefeld noted that Germany had already taken action to reach this standard, and said Berlin would increase defense spending to 5% of GDP “well before” 2035 and add almost 100,000 new active-duty soldiers to the Bundeswehr.

He also took issue with U.S. critics who argued that Germany and other European allies were still not shouldering their share of the defense burden. Hanefeld said Germany has signed more than 380 contracts worth more than $33 billion with US defense companies for the supply and production of fighter jets, transport helicopters, air defense systems and ammunition.

“This is a down payment on the transatlantic future and our political determination to shift the burden of deterrence and defense to Europe,” Hanefeld said.

TRUMP HAS FORCED NATO TO SPEND BIG — NOW COMES THE HARDER QUESTION: CAN EUROPE REALLY COULD FIGHT?

September 24, 2025; Augusta, Georgia, USA; HE Jens Hanefeld, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to the United States, speaks at Aurubis’ first melting ceremony at Aurubis Richmond. Aurubis is a metal recycling facility. (Katie Goodale – Augusta Chronicle/USA TODAY NETWORK)

Defending NATO’s eastern flank

One of Germany’s most visible commitments is its standing brigade in Lithuania, which is expected to include around 5,000 German military and civilian personnel. The Bundeswehr said the force is planned to be fully operational in the defense of NATO’s eastern flank in the Baltic region within three years.

Hanefeld described the brigade as one of Germany’s “signature efforts” to reassure its Baltic allies that NATO “will defend every inch of allied territory.”

For Germany, change is not just about money. This is a political and cultural rupture with decades of wariness of military power. For the United States, it is also a test of whether the ally long criticized by Trump and other U.S. leaders for underspending can now become the European backbone that Washington demands.

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NATO peacekeeping mission KFOR celebrated its 20th anniversary at a ceremony in Pristina. (Laura Hasani/Reuters)

Hanefeld said Berlin plans to go exactly to this point.

“NATO will remain transatlantic at its core, but will become more European over the next decade,” he said.