German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has initiated talks with France on strengthening Europe’s nuclear deterrent as he urged the continent to bolster its defences and “repair” strained relations with the US.
The discussions, centred on the possibility of Germany joining France’s nuclear umbrella, underline mounting anxiety in Europe over an expected reduction in the US military presence on the continent, as Russia’s full-scale war on Ukraine enters its fifth year.
Opening the Munich Security Conference on Friday, Merz said Europe “must become a global political power with its own security strategy”.
“I have started initial talks with French President Emmanuel Macron about European nuclear deterrence,” he said. He stressed these discussions were “strictly embedded in our nuclear participation within Nato” and insisted Germany will “not create zones of divergent security in Europe”.
He reminded the largely US and European audience of policymakers and security experts that the EU treaties contain a mutual defence clause — Article 42 — in the event of “armed aggression” against one of the EU member states.
“We must now spell out how we want to organise this in a European way — not as a substitute for Nato, but as a self-supporting strong pillar within the alliance,” he said.
His comments come as European governments seek to close a potential deterrence gap amid repeated signals from Washington that it intends to scale back its defence posture in Europe and shift resources and troops towards the Indo-Pacific and its immediate neighbourhood.
The US nuclear arsenal includes more than 100 gravity bombs stationed in Europe. These are under American control but, according to the nuclear sharing deal within Nato, are designed to be dropped by fighter jets flown by Belgium, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey.
Macron plans to give a speech about nuclear deterrence later this month, according to several people close to the matter.
Unlike Britain’s nuclear deterrent, France’s arsenal sits outside Nato’s nuclear sharing arrangements and does not rely on American technology. While the UK has full autonomy in firing the weapons, it cannot build, maintain or modernise them without US co-operation.
Paris has long maintained that its “vital interests”, which underpin its nuclear doctrine, have a “European dimension”, deliberately preserving ambiguity over the circumstances in which a French president might authorise the use of atomic weapons.
Last year, Macron offered to “open the strategic debate” with interested European countries to determine “if there are new co-operations that may emerge”.
Addressing the conference later on Friday, Macron confirmed he was holding a “strategic dialogue” with Merz and other countries “to see how we can articulate our national (nuclear) doctrine”.
These discussions are part of efforts to reorganise Europe’s security architecture because the previous one “was totally designed during cold war times”, he said. The nuclear deterrence talks were “a way to create convergence in our strategic approach and strategic culture between Germany and France”, Macron added.
The discussions are tentative and explorative rather than focused on a particular goal, three people briefed on the matter told the FT. They are not considering deploying French weapons in other European states, two of the people said, but rather exploring how France’s posture and doctrine could shift to better protect non-French territory.
“[France] has said they are open and willing to discuss their own capabilities in slightly wider circles,” said one of the people briefed on the confidential discussions. “Quite a few Europeans see it as a very good thing that France and the UK possess these weapons.”
Merz insisted talks with France and Europe’s efforts to develop its own defence strategy did not mean “writing off” Nato. Although he declared the old world order over, he called for “repairing and reviving” the transatlantic relationship.
“A gap has opened up between Europe and the United States,” he said, referring to last year’s speech in Munich by US vice-president JD Vance, who lashed out at Europe for supposedly betraying its democratic values.
“The culture war of the Maga movement is not ours,” Merz said.
“Freedom of speech ends here for us when that speech is directed against human dignity and basic law. We do not believe in tariffs and protectionism but in free trade. We stand by climate agreements and the World Health Organization,” he added, drawing applause.
Despite the tensions, Merz argued the transatlantic relationship remained preferable to isolation in the new era of “great powers”.
Europe, he said, was too vulnerable without the US, and Washington also needed allies to contain China, which was “laying claim to global leadership”.
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China “systematically exploits the dependencies of others. It is reinterpreting the international order to suit its own interests,” said Merz, who is due to travel to Beijing later this month.
Macron echoed Merz on the need for Europe to become a “geopolitical actor” and re-arm. But he also appeared to warn Germany’s leader about the temptation of going it alone instead of pursuing common European defence projects after Berlin loosened its purse strings to pour hundreds of billions into its military.
The French leader said he believed in the Future Combat Air System, the €100bn project between France, Germany and Spain that is on the brink of collapse because of tensions between the companies involved. Berlin and Paris are discussing whether to move to the next phase as planned, or significantly scale back the project by dropping the common jet component.
“It’s hard for me to understand how we will build new common solutions if we destroy the few ones that we have,” Macron said.
