On the 70th anniversary of Germany's accession to NATO, Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) praised the alliance for its great contributions to the people of Germany. NATO "was and remains the foundation for three generations growing up in Germany who have known nothing but freedom, peace, and security," Merz said at a ceremony in Berlin on Wednesday.
The Chancellor reiterated that Germany would support NATO much more strongly in the future than before. In his speech to around 500 guests on the Defense Ministry's parade ground in Berlin, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte thanked Germany for its willingness to more than double defense spending by 2029. "That is remarkable; that is leadership," he said.
Germany is a "driving force in our alliance," Rutte emphasized, adding: "Thank you, Germany, for everything you do for our alliance." In his speech, Merz acknowledged significant shortcomings in German security policy in recent years. Germany has "significant backlogs to catch up on; we have to be honest with ourselves about that," he said.
"For too long, Germany was unwilling to pay the costs of its own security – because it seemed to be alright anyway," the Chancellor said. "It took Russia's open war of aggression against the entire Ukraine for the majority in Germany to realize: Our defense capability is not a task we can postpone or even outsource."
The 70th anniversary of Germany's accession to NATO falls "in times of great geopolitical upheaval," the Chancellor said. He pointed to the Russian war against Ukraine and "massive Russian hybrid attacks on NATO and also on Germany." Only the alliance can provide answers to such challenges. "This alliance breathes, it lives, and it sustains our collective security," Merz said.
Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) and Federal Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul (CDU) also pledged significantly stronger German support for the alliance. "For our alliance to remain successful, we Europeans must assume more responsibility," Pistorius said in his speech. "Germany is leading the way in this." The 70th anniversary of Germany's accession to NATO is "an incentive and a mandate not to let up."
NATO is "under pressure today like never before since the end of the Cold War," Pistorius said. "It is under pressure – from Russia's violent revisionism in Europe." The "brutal Russian war of aggression" against Ukraine has "finally silenced" the question of NATO's relevance, the minister said. "Alliance defense is once again paramount. Together, we will defend every inch of NATO territory."
In his speech, Wadephul committed to "drastically adjusting our defense spending." "It's about our security, our freedom, our prosperity," the minister emphasized. "The Russian war of aggression against Ukraine has shown us, at the very latest, how fragile security and peace can still be, even in Europe, which many already considered a continent of eternal peace."
Ukraine will show "whether borders on the European continent can be shifted by force," Wadephul said. In the current situation, NATO is also "challenged like never before in decades." The Foreign Minister recalled the extent to which Germany, in particular, had previously benefited from alliance solidarity. During the Cold War, the Federal Republic was NATO's eastern flank.
Therefore, the alliance must be strengthened even today: "The NATO of the future must be more agile, more determined, and more technologically superior," said Wadephul. In this respect, Germany's 70 years of NATO membership are "a promise for the future."
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