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  • German and Czech soldiers are carrying out a military exercise In Lithuania.

  • The potential enemy: Russia.

  • Their mission: deterrence and a show of strength on NATO's eastern flank.

  • We will deter the enemy with all the means at our disposal.

  • The world is growing less secure and more confusing.

  • A renewed arms race with nuclear and conventional weapons is imminent.

  • Existing alliances are crumbling.

  • We need to be firm, we need to be strong to deter

  • any potential aggressor from attacking us to preserve the peace.

  • Germany and its neighbors could again be caught in the middle

  • between the superpowers.

  • Russia is laying claim to territory and for the first time since World War Two

  • a country is taking that territory by force.

  • This is a potential threat of the highest order.

  • And anyone who opposes a rearmament debate is not just naive.

  • That's incredibly dangerous.

  • Can the German military, the Bundeswehr, meet the new challenges?

  • I do believe that the German military is in a very dire and critical state.

  • The number of ships that can't sail, the number of planes that can't fly.

  • Can the western alliance system still guarantee security?

  • What role does Germany play in NATO and in the world?

  • When NATO sounds the alarm, the order reaches the

  • 9th Armoured Demonstration Brigade in Munster in northwestern Germany.

  • This time the mail is about an exercise.

  • But the entire apparatus responds as it would in a genuine emergency.

  • The brigade provides part of the ground troops for NATO's

  • Very High Readiness Joint Task Force, the VJTF.

  • It was established in 2014 in response to Russia's annexation of Crimea.

  • I've received the alarm order, now I evaluate it.

  • And then I decipher the letter combinations in the order to find out

  • which alarm measures have actually been triggered.

  • For that I consult the Bundeswehr crisis response plan,

  • so I can see which alarm measures are behind the combinations of letters.

  • I'll check which measures are important for the VJTF brigade

  • and then I'll inform the chief and the brigade leadership accordingly.

  • Rapid response units are central to NATO's new threat scenarios.

  • In this instance an emergency situation that involves fighting off

  • an enemy attack will be rehearsed in a maneuver in Poland.

  • Within three days at the most,

  • 2,300 soldiers from three countries have to be ready to move.

  • All the strands come together here in a high security area at headquarters.

  • It's a logistical challenge to coordinate the troops from

  • Germany, Norway, and The Netherlands.

  • We have to establish communication with the

  • First German Armored Division and the German-Netherlands Corps.

  • I want the initial results in 90 minutes.

  • The clock is also ticking for Major Marja Alm.

  • Nothing unususal to report in the area.

  • Very good.

  • The major heads a company of around 250 soldiers.

  • The biggest challenge for us is to be ready to move within 48 hours.

  • My soldiers have to load all the trucks,

  • the trucks have to be organized in convoys.

  • My heavy vehicles have to be prepared for rail transport.

  • 48 hours is not a lot of time.

  • Major Alm is an experienced soldier who has served

  • on foreign missions in Mali and Kosovo.

  • Now she has to ensure that the command in Poland

  • will have a fully equipped workplace.

  • Around 600 vehicles

  • including 70 tanks

  • are setting off from garrisons around Germany to head for Poland.

  • The rapid response force is more important to NATO than ever.

  • But today, at a time when Europe again has to worry about security,

  • how united are the partners in the alliance?

  • Washington, April 2019.

  • NATO celebrated the 70th anniversary of its founding.

  • For seven decades the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has used its

  • deterrence capability to protect peace, freedom and prosperity

  • on both sides of the Atlantic.

  • A day before the ceremony,

  • the west's leading defense and foreign policy officials gathered at a meeting.

  • It was supposed to be a celebration of 70 years of NATO and transatlantic relations.

  • But then, US Vice President Mike Pence took to the podium to issue a rebuke.

  • More of our allies are now meeting their commitments.

  • But still too many others are falling short.

  • And as we all acknowledge, Germany is chief among them.

  • Germany is Europe's largest and healthiest economy.

  • It's a leading global exporter and it's benefited from

  • US protection of Europe for generations.

  • Germany must do more.

  • A not-so diplomatic attack on the alliance partner that has not invested

  • the agreed two percent of its GDP in defense.

  • The German foreign minister had to try to explain why his wealthy country

  • wasn't prepared to spend more on European security.

  • I know that our budgetary process is sometimes difficult

  • for outsiders to understand, and believe me not just for them.

  • However, we made a firm commitment to invest more money in defense.

  • And we intend to keep our word.

  • We in Europe know that we cannot take our security for granted.

  • A rather modest show of strength from the foreign minister.

  • Heiko Maas left the meeting by the back door to avoid unwanted questions.

  • A fitting image of Germany's appearance at the NATO summit.

  • Germany has already promised its allies at three summits

  • to raise military spending as agreed.

  • The Defense Ministry would like to see a hefty rise

  • to 54.7 billion euros a year.

  • But the Finance Ministry has other plans.

  • It even wants spending to drop in the coming yearsto 44.2 Billion.

  • That corresponds to 1.23 percent of GDP

  • so even further below NATO's two percent target.

  • Julianne Smith was a security advisor in the Obama administration,

  • and is a prominent expert on German-American relations.

  • I do think the NATO alliance has a Germany problem

  • because now one of its largest allies is unwilling or unable to meet

  • a commitment that essentially all allies made in 2014.

  • This is not a situation where the Trump administration is

  • fired up and frustrated with the German government.

  • We're now facing a situation where Democrats and Republicans alike

  • are quite critical of Berlin and its failure to meet that target.

  • I understand that almost all politicians would like to spend money on

  • something else than defense

  • on health, on education, on infrastructure.

  • At the same time, we expect Germany to invest more in defense

  • because we all promised to do so back in 2014.

  • But Germany's governing coalition of conservatives and Social Democrats

  • has a different take on the numbers:

  • they say Germany has invested more than 30 billion euros in NATO since 2014,

  • provided the second largest contingent of troops in Afghanistan,

  • and taken part in many missions around the world.

  • The Social Democrats in particular oppose a sudden rise in the defense budget.

  • Foreign and defense policy expert Rolftzenich explains.

  • We provide suitable personnel to NATO.

  • We try to coordinate with our alliance partners and are guided by quality.

  • And back when the German government accepted this two-percent target,

  • we in Parliament said, 'Ultimately wethe lawmakers

  • are the ones who will decide what will be in the annual budget.'

  • Carlo Masala, a professor at the Bundeswehr University in Munich,

  • advises the government on security issues.

  • He says economizing on military spending would be disastrous.

  • It's not just grossly naive, it's negligent and risky.

  • Here in Europe we are currently in a situation where

  • the Russian Federation with its armament efforts has an advantage

  • in strategic escalation that we currently can't compete with.

  • Vladimir Putin's Russia has changed the world in terms of security policy.

  • When the Cold War ended, it seemed unthinkable,

  • but the world is now once again in the middle of an arms race.

  • And Putin has been testng the limits of the NATO alliance

  • with the conflict in eastern Ukraine, the Russian annexation of Crimea.

  • Russia on the other hand feels provoked by NATO's eastern enlargement plans.

  • In April 2016, over the Baltic Sea, 130 kilometers from Kaliningrad.

  • Two Russian fighter jets carried out 20 mock attacks on a US warship.

  • And the number of provocations is increasing.

  • There are threats that we have to address or challenges we have to address

  • in the North Atlantic with increased Russian submarine activity

  • and our lack of sensors up there to understand what's going on.

  • There's definitely a threat stemming from Russia.

  • NATO takes that threat very seriously.

  • Its response has been, for example, the exercise in Poland

  • with the brigades from Germany, Norway and the Netherlands.

  • Four days after the raising of the alarm in Munster,

  • the VJTF rapid response troops are on their way to the Noble Jump exercise.

  • The more than 2,300 soldiers are being trained to ensure Europe's security

  • under German leadership.

  • Noble Jump is basically all about NATO's rapid response troop.

  • The task is deterrence through a show of strength.

  • But if, at the end of the day, that doesn't help we have to clearly show

  • that we are in a position to defend the territory of the alliance

  • and if necessary to restore the territorial integrity of NATO.

  • It's just after 4 o'clock in the morning.

  • The 9th armored demonstration brigade positions itself.

  • Helge Timm commands a Leopard 2 tank.

  • It weighs 64 tons and has a 1,500 horsepower engine.

  • We're here on a Leopard 2 battle tank.

  • We have crew of four men.

  • This is my driver.

  • He steers according to my orders.

  • The gunner is responsible for the exchange of fire.

  • And the loader is responsible for all the weapons on the tank

  • including the machine guns.

  • I'm the commander — I coordinate everything.

  • Final preparations for the maneuver.

  • Helge Timm and his crew take up battle position.

  • Okay, sight gunner, swing the tower to the right.

  • You've got woods on the right.

  • Do you recognize.

  • Okay, swing more to the left.

  • Right there you can see the observation center of the platoon.

  • The mission here is to retake a village.

  • Even though no one wants to say it openly,

  • the rapid response troop is supposed to deter Russia.

  • Today the enemy only consists of dummies and decommissioned tanks.

  • Here on our left my platoon is in position.

  • Next to them is another platoon in position.

  • Further ahead in the left-hand section

  • there's also a Norwegian company in position.

  • They are all ready and waiting for the shooting to start.

  • Backward march!

  • Helge Timm's tank platoon is one of NATO's elite units.

  • It is a fully-equipped brigade

  • which makes it quite an exception in the Bundeswehr.

  • By 2031 the military is supposed to have eight fully equpped brigades.

  • But at the moment not a single one is 100 percent ready for action.

  • Even the VJTF troops had to borrow material from all over Germany.

  • Everyone has realized that the way the system functions at the moment,

  • that we had to bring material from throughout the Bundeswehr

  • to Munster or other places to fulfill our mission,

  • that that is not an acceptable state of affairs.

  • This is not about buildup but adequate equipment.

  • Those eight brigades have to be fully equipped so that

  • they can be just as ready for action as this brigade is.

  • Fully equipping them will be costly,

  • but Germany has made a binding commitment to NATO.

  • The army estimates that the price for a single

  • brigade will amount to five billion euros.

  • But in recent years,

  • there has been practically no investment in material and equipment.

  • And even with a lot of money it will be hard to quickly rebuild

  • all the structures that have been dismantled over the years.

  • Last projectile

  • There are systems in the Bundeswehr that are older than I am

  • and we still have the problem that when we are deployed in major NATO exercises,

  • we can meet our obligations,

  • but it comes at the expense of operations and exercises back home.

  • We no longer invested in large stockages of replacement parts nor of ammunition.

  • And now to fill up and modernize everthing in

  • the existing structures will take until 2031.

  • We will definitely need that many years to get to the point where

  • we can meet NATO and EU demands.

  • Sometimes even a piece of fencing can stop

  • 60 tons of military high-tech in its tracks.

  • Tank commaner Helge Timm is not happy with the situation!

  • Go in there, turn the motor on,

  • give a signal to the front and then drive backwards a bit.

  • Time is pressing.

  • The tank crew has to get the vehicle back into position for the NATO exercise.

  • The scenario that is being rehearsed here is chillingly realistic:

  • The task of lIberating a village symbolizes the fear of an invasion by enemy troops.

  • Right here.

  • In Poland.

  • In Europe.

  • After five hours the maneuver is completed for Helge Timm and his crew.

  • The commander is 32, his comrades are under 30.

  • The Cold War is something they only know from history books.

  • When I joined up, the Bundeswehr was already involved in missions abroad.

  • But now the threat is different.

  • We see here that a completely battle-ready brigade has been formed

  • to engage in high-intensity combat, if necessary.

  • The idea of defending the alliance and their country

  • is no longer entirely theoretical.

  • Three-quarters of a century after the end of World War II

  • that has become an imaginable scenario for German soldiers.

  • I have been a soldier for 35 years.

  • I saw the Wall fall, I saw Europe being reunited.

  • I experienced Islamist terrorists occupying half the Middle East.

  • So at the end of the day one thing counts for me:

  • It doesn't matter who you're against.

  • At the end of the day there's only one thing that is lasting and forward-looking,

  • and that's what you're for.

  • And we are for peace and freedom.

  • Full stop.

  • Peace and freedom were the goals in the late 1980s

  • when the US and the Soviet Union agreed to ban their land-based

  • intermediate-range nuclear missiles.

  • US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev signed

  • the INF treaty in December 1987 in Washington.

  • After decades of Cold War,

  • it was a milestone in ending the arms race between the superpowers.

  • In 2019, after accusing Russia of violating the treaty,

  • the US formally pulled out of the INF.

  • And the New START, a 2010 nuclear arms reduction treaty between the US and Russia,

  • may not be extended when it expires in 2021.

  • Does this herald a new nuclear arms race?

  • The INF Treaty can't be saved because

  • neither of the parties to the agreement are still interested in saving it.

  • The United States would only want to rescue it if it is globalized

  • meaning if China, India, and Pakistan join.

  • The Chinese have already made it clear that they see no reason to join it,

  • and the Russians have violated it.

  • In early 2019 Russia publicly unveiled its SSC-8 nuclear missile.

  • The ground-launched cruise missile is claimed by US Intelligence

  • to have a range of over 2,300 kilometers

  • which puts it in violation of the INF Treaty.

  • The agreement bans the development and possession of ground-based missiles

  • with a range of over 500 kilometers.

  • For me it's also a question of security for Germany:

  • an end to the Treaty would mean that we again enter a threat mechanism,

  • that nuclear medium-range weapons will again threaten

  • areas extending to us in western Europe.

  • And that has to be urgently prevented.

  • It's a crucial test for Europe.

  • For some years, Poland has been calling for nuclear weapons

  • if necessary going it alone with the US.

  • Romania has invested billions of euros in US missile defense systems

  • to protect it from a potential Russian threat.

  • Is Putin deliberately exploiting the current power vacuum

  • and NATO's weakness to redefine his own role?

  • He's definitely fanning the flames in Central and Eastern Europe.

  • So it's not that I lie awake at night and worry about

  • some sort of conventional military escalation with Russia.

  • I think that's always a possibility.

  • But that's not what worries me the most.

  • What worries me the most is, his efforts to divide us and undermine

  • our values and our institutions that we've spent 70 years building

  • and he's succeeding on that front.

  • Russia is trying to destabilize the alliance and western democracies.

  • It influences elections and referendums, launches cyber attacks,

  • and wants to bind individual NATO partners to it more closely.

  • Does Putin see the end of the INF Treaty

  • as a way of driving a further wedge between NATO partners?

  • What is the aim of Russia's foreign and defense policy?

  • For years, journalist Alexander Golz has been observing and analysing

  • the Russian military apparatus and Kremlin policy.

  • He too finds Putin's motivation puzzling.

  • Don't ask me about logical argumentation for these reasons

  • because this argumentation doesn't exist.

  • But in Putin's mind and within the Kremlin's approach,

  • NATO is planning aggression.

  • You can name it paranoia.

  • God knows.

  • Moscow sees itself as a

  • victor of the military conflicts in Syria and eastern Uraine.

  • The annexation of Crimea also set a dangerous precedent.

  • Take what you wantyou don't have to fear consequences.

  • Russia is a purely militaristic state.

  • One of the main features of a military state

  • is that the state gives a military answer to any challenge.

  • I think Mr. Putin as well as Mr. Trump

  • are very inspired by the idea

  • to possess this overwhelming force, this overwhelming nuclear might.

  • If I have this, I can do everything I want.

  • Mediators are urgently needed.

  • German chancellor Angela Merkel could take on the role.

  • But she is caught in the middle.

  • In Germany there is opposition to sanctions against Russia

  • while the US is calling for Berlin to take a tougher stance.

  • Germany can play the role of a negotiator,

  • but we should keep in mind that according to Mr. Putin's mentality,

  • Germany is not a self-confident player.

  • And indeed the governing coalition has been sending out

  • contradictory messages on foreign and security policy.

  • What should Germany's relationship with Russia be?

  • A partnership?

  • Or a stronger rejection of the Kremlin's provocations?

  • We discussed this in the defense committee

  • before the parliamentary summer break.

  • We have means of dialogue.

  • We have points of contact between the Bundeswehr and the Russian military.

  • There are policy talks on a ministerial level.

  • The contacts are there, but we also show clearly that we expect

  • the Russian side to abide by the Minsk II accords.

  • In February 2015, the Minsk II Accords were signed by leaders of

  • Ukraine, Russia, France, Germany, and Ukrainian separatists.

  • The aim was to end armed fighting.

  • It failed to hold.

  • And in the Baltic states, there is concern about a possible new Ukraine scenario.

  • The narrow corridor between Poland and Lithuania

  • with borders to the highly militarized Russian enclave of Kaliningrad

  • and Belarus is NATO's Achilles heel.

  • If the so-called Suwalki Gap were to be occupied by Russia,

  • it would cut off the Baltic states from the rest of the EU.

  • The defenses on Lithuania's border with Belarus

  • have been bolstered with millions of euros of EU funding.

  • They include 300 cameras along the over 650 kilometer long border.

  • Lithuanian border police Vadim Solovij and Ilona Sabel are on patrol.

  • Security on NATO's outer borders is a police matter.

  • The military can only approach within 5 kilometers of the border

  • so as not to further provoke the neighboring country.

  • We are seeing if are there border violations, or signs of smuggling

  • and also illegal immigrants, or just people who don't know that

  • there is a border and are just coming here.

  • This is an alarm because we are close to the surveilance tower.

  • I just mentioned that they could turn it off.

  • Now they are watching us

  • No move goes unobserved.

  • The two sides watch each other suspiciously.

  • Border security here is also security for NATO.

  • The military alliance is less interested in smugglers and migrants

  • than in provocateurs sent by the Kremlin who might be entering to

  • prepare or even trigger a conflict.

  • Of course the system helps in gathering information

  • that could be of interest to our military.

  • Especially when military exercises take place in a neighboring state.

  • That is definitely on the rise

  • more uniformed personnel on the border, and technical innovations.

  • As western frontline states vis-à-vis their powerful neighbor,

  • the Baltic countries followed Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014

  • with a heightened sense of threat compared to other European countries.

  • Having experienced decades of Soviet occupation,

  • many Lithuanians have unpleasant memories of the Cold War era.

  • I served on a submarine in Murmansk.

  • I know their system.

  • I know how they tick.

  • They would take Ukraine, Lithuania, everything

  • that was part of the former Soviet Union.

  • Their influence extends to Belarus, which they can use for their military aims.

  • They are stretching out to Belarus

  • and Belarus is a country that they can use for their military advancement.

  • We see what happened to the Ukraine and we don't want any of that here.

  • We'd rather have tractors than tanks, to farm the land, to give us bread

  • to serve the people.

  • Not these tanks.

  • What are they good for?

  • The NATO presence is vital for us to survive, and actually

  • if we didn't have NATO soldiers, we would be vulnerable.

  • In the capital Vilnius

  • there is little to be seen of the 1,000 NATO soldiers.

  • But they are present in people's minds.

  • And their numbers are set to rise.

  • We have already increased the readiness of our forces,

  • tripled the size of the NATO Response Force.

  • We are now implementing a new readiness initiative.

  • And Germany is part of that

  • and this year is leading the high readiness force of NATO.

  • This reflects that we are now in a totally different security environment

  • than we were the years after the end of the Cold War.

  • But deterrence depends not only on troops and military equipment

  • but also on the enemy's belief that the alliance

  • will stick together in an emergency.

  • The current US President views international organizations

  • as superfluous at best.

  • His advisors seem to have difficulty preventing him from

  • fundamentally questioning the Alliance.

  • I would caution Germans against assuming that it couldn't happen.

  • I think it could happen.

  • And the fact that we recently saw a newsbreak that

  • certain members of the Pentagon and the State Department were tasked with

  • looking into the possibility of giving Germany a bill for stationing US troops

  • to me indicates that that is a process that could lead to

  • the United States at least distancing itself.

  • American troops during an exercise in the Baltic.

  • But how much longer will they be there?

  • If the worst comes to the worst would the Americans withdraw from NATO?

  • And would Europe then hold Berlin responsible and not Washington?

  • He is basically using Germany as a whipping boy

  • for the issue of the burden sharing in NATO.

  • If the US president says out loud that the US is no longer interested in NATO,

  • that the US will not stand by its obligations under Article 5,

  • then two parties are responsible

  • the United States and the Federal Republic of Germany.

  • Article 5 of the NATO treaty commits members to consider

  • an armed attack against one member state to be an attack on all of them.

  • Donald Trump has awakened doubts about his solidarity with the alliance.

  • And Russia is trying to divide NATO still further.

  • Turkey orients itself towards Moscow, and has made an arms deal with Russia.

  • Italy's government has been flirting with the west's greatest rival, China.

  • The giant country doesn't need an alliance

  • China plays its own game.

  • And China sees its autocratic political model

  • as a blueprint for the world of tomorrow.

  • The masterplan by the leadership in Beijing aims to make China

  • the first modern socialist global power by 2050.

  • China's New Silk Road project is designed to revive the ancient trade routes

  • across Central Asia and the Middle East to Europe.

  • It's the biggest infrastructure investment program of all time,

  • including high-speed railway lines,

  • deep-water ports,

  • gigantic tunnel and bridge projects,

  • oil and gas pipelines, electricity grids, and European harbors

  • from Greece to Italy to Germany.

  • We must further facilitate and liberalise trade and investments

  • and reject protectionism outright.

  • China checks all the boxes.

  • I mean obviously there we have military and security concerns about China.

  • But we also have concerns about the political model that China

  • is putting forward as an alternative to what the West

  • has put its faith in for many many many decades.

  • Economic policy is also military policy.

  • With the exception of the US, no country in the world spends as much on arms as China.

  • In 2018 it amounted to some 142 billion euros.

  • Our military must regard combat capability as the criterion to meet

  • in all its work and focus on how to win when it is called on.

  • We will take solid steps to ensure military preparedness for all strategic directions

  • and make progress in combat readiness in both traditional

  • and new security fields.

  • The Chinese president said very clearly at the 19th Party Congress

  • that he wants a world-class military.

  • He doesn't need a world-class military if it's just about Asia,

  • if it's just about defending Chinese territory.

  • He needs a world-class military if the scenario is a possible

  • military escalation with the United States.

  • China has gone on the offensive.

  • And is flexing its muscle.

  • This martial footage is part of a promotional video

  • from a Chinese arms manufacturer.

  • It could almost have been shot in Hollywood.

  • The message is clear:

  • we are big, we are powerful, we take what we want.

  • Taiwan is a primary focus of China's power play.

  • The Chinese leadership wants reunification with what it sees as a breakaway province.

  • And it's willing to take on Taiwan's protective power, the United States.

  • Now we're seeing the same problem with Taiwan that

  • we discussed in reference to the Baltic states.

  • Look at China

  • an 800 pound gorilla in Asia

  • and this tiny little birdterritorially speaking

  • that is Taiwan.

  • What is the likelihood that the United States would go to war

  • with China with the potential of a nuclear escalation

  • to prevent this little bird from being taken by an 800 pound gorilla?

  • Very unlikely.

  • So Taiwan could become one of the big conflicts in Asia in the future.

  • Few experts doubt that China will try to pursue

  • its plans for reunification with Taiwan.

  • Beijing has not ruled out using military force to achieve that aim.

  • And China is an increasing threat to the western alliance in other areas as well.

  • Military aspects are becoming increasingly important in cyber technology.

  • How great is the danger for Germany?

  • I think it is clear that China not only intends to become an economic world power.

  • And of course we are concerned about this development.

  • In the area of digitalization,

  • we have the question of which Chinese companies we should allow

  • to build up our infrastructure.

  • I think there's a lot of sensitivity on the European

  • and German side when it comes to dealings with China

  • The US warns of Chinese companies like Huawei and ZTE.

  • They say their technology can be used by Beijing for espionage.

  • And in fact the Chinese government can force companies

  • to take part in espionage operations and sabotage European networks.

  • The threat in cyberspace:

  • it's not primarily a classical military threat,

  • but it is a threat to our critical infrastructure, as we call it.

  • It's a threat to everyone in that we are all exposed to hacker attacks

  • without actually knowing where the attacks are coming from.

  • It was consequential and challenging in ways that are hard to imagine today.

  • The Cold War had a whole host of challenges.

  • But we had essentially kind of one adversary

  • and we were looking at it through the lens of state to state conflict

  • and through a conventional military lens.

  • Now we've taken that and we've blossomed it.

  • What worries me is that we're still operating in government structures

  • and in institutions that were designed for a very different era.

  • Is NATO ready to meet the new challenges?

  • Does the western alliance system still guarantee security?

  • The 70 year old foundation of foreign policy on both sides of the Atlantic

  • is showing more and more cracks.

  • The one-time promise of shared values has been watered down.

  • Europe's governments are trying to find the least common denominator.

  • We have to make it clear in the alliance that

  • we have an interest in approaching Russia,

  • and China with the support of the US to say,

  • 'The world will be a safer place if we agree on a new,

  • comparable arms control system.'

  • For that we need to have the US as a partner.

  • As Europeans, we see ourselves as part of NATO, as part of the western alliance,

  • but as Europeans we also want to make a stronger contribution to this alliance.

  • To remain transatlantic, but become more European.

  • But how would that work in practice?

  • French president Emmanuel Macron dreams of a European army

  • under French-German leadership.

  • Could such a European Army fill the power vacuum that would result

  • if the US pulled out of NATO?

  • At the moment the EU is

  • politically and militarily

  • a small entity on US life support.

  • If Europe starts to go it alone it will divide Europe from North America.

  • But it will also divide Europe.

  • So to go alone is not good for United States is not good for Europe.

  • Two world wars, the Cold War, the fight against terrorism

  • have taught us that we need to stand together.

  • Honestly, I can't imagine Europe being able to guarantee its own security

  • in the forseeable future.

  • We need the US.

  • And when I look around the world, I can't see any power that is

  • as close to us culturally and economically as the United States.

  • That's why I think it is good for us to hold on to it.

  • But the fact that we sometimes wrangle with the Americans,

  • that we sometimes have different points of view,

  • means that the Europeans have to get more involved

  • and make a more effective contribution.

  • Only then can we have a say.

  • The new threats don't permit Europe to go it alone.

  • NATO is being forced to stick together, as shown by the rapid reaction force.

  • Tank Commander Helge Timm's working day is coming to an end.

  • He and his crew have been involved in this exercise for several weeks now.

  • But they're not necessarily expecting an emergency.

  • Of course shooting exercises are different,

  • because the cardboard targets don't shoot back.

  • But I know my training was so good that if I were facing a real tank,

  • I'd react just as well.

  • It's still an exercise.

  • But the world has become more confusing.

  • The old structures are fading.

  • Germany will have to invest more

  • and not just financially.

  • To be a reliable partner Germany will have to take responsibility

  • and send soldiers on combat missions.

  • The tasks are growing larger and beoming more dangerous.

German and Czech soldiers are carrying out a military exercise In Lithuania.

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北約(Germany's role in NATO and the world | DW Documentary)

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    joey joey 發佈於 2021 年 09 月 26 日
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