The EU needs to rapidly arm itself as the world enters a new era of great-power struggle, the German chancellor has claimed
European nations have to accept that the post-Cold War liberal “rules-based international order” is no more, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told the Munich Security Conference on Friday. The EU and its members need to rapidly adapt to the new reality by arming themselves, he claimed.
His words came as Berlin seeks to circumvent EU rules governing budget deficits and competition to save Germany’s flagging economy through a massive rearmament program. The bloc’s biggest economy plans to spend $582 billion on defense by 2029 amid an ongoing recession. The nation’s central bank warned last year that the government is on track for its largest budget deficit since the early 1990s.
“The international order based on rights and rules… no longer exists,” Merz declared at the forum. “The United States claim to leadership has been challenged and possibly lost,” he stated, pointing to what he called Russia’s “violent revisionism” and China’s desire to “be a leader in shaping the world.”
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