Merz: Germany agreed to buy Tomahawk missiles at NATO summit

Germany has agreed to purchase US Tomahawk cruise missiles and station them in Germany, Chancellor Friedrich Merz told Germany's parliament, or Bundestag, on Thursday morning. 

Merz has just returned from the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, also attended by US President Donald Trump and other senior US government officials. 

What did Merz tell parliament after the NATO summit? 

Merz was speaking in a broader address to the Bundestag touting his government's record.

As well as a string of domestic and economic priorities — like planned income tax and pension reforms working their way through parliament — he listed a final goal as moving toward "a future where our country is not susceptible to blackmail, but rather can confidently meet every threat posed to our free way of life using its own strength."

Merz said the "results" of this week's NATO summit in Turkey "exceeded all of my expectations," saying it had showed that the alliance was "united, strong and self-confident." 

"On the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara we also agreed with the American government that Tomahawk missiles would be purchased by us and stationed in Germany," Merz said. "With this we are closing an important strategic gap in our defense. And at the same time we will work on developing our own European systems and deploying them in Europe."

DW's Berlin correspondent specializing in defense, Nina Werkhäuser, called the timing of Merz's announcement one day after the Ankara summit "surprising."

"European countries do not yet have comparable weapons of their own and are therefore reliant on US capabilities for their defense," she added.

"Developing a European system of their own is a high priority in Berlin and other European capitals, but is likely to take quite some time."

Meanwhile, Merz also touted the deal reached this week to sell TKMS submarines to Canada as the largest military contract in modern German history. 

He said that agreements such as these "make it clear to me that NATO is, and remains, a trans-Atlantic alliance."

"But we as Europeans are also strong, and we have understood that we cannot simply outsource our security," he told the chamber in Berlin. 

What else did Merz discuss in the speech? 

Merz's reports from his recent sojourn in Ankara were one part of a broader address dedicated for the most part to domestic politics. 

The Christian Democrat chancellor was trying to drum up support for his coalition's package of summer reforms in various areas, like pensions, welfare, health care and income tax.

"These agreements aim above all for more flexibility for our businesses, for the preservation of our welfare state, for tax relief for workers," Merz said. 

His coalition agreed last week on a 34-point reform package that it is now trying to move through parliament. He alluded to one such step scheduled for Friday in both houses of parliament.

"Tomorrow, or so I hope at least, we in the Bundestag and Bundesrat will put statutory health insurance on a new and financially sustainable foundation," he said, as politicians from the opposition Greens and the Left Party and one from the Alternative for Germany (AfD) move to try to halt the vote via an injunction from the Constitutional Court.

What did Merz say about opposition critics? 

Merz also argued that this flurry of plans, some of them hard-wrought internally within his coalition, served as evidence that "the center delivers." He said, in what seemed a jab aimed in particular at the right-wing populist AfD, that too often of late he had heard claims about the political center failing to deliver and getting in its own way. 

"Let me respond as clearly as possible: The center delivers and above all it fulfills the task entrusted to it by law," Merz said. 

He said that there was no shortage across Europe of radical forces claiming to offer simple solutions, also in Germany but said, "we are strong enough to collectively dispel these attacks on our freedom and the stability of our country." 

He argued that the proposals of radical parties, whether on the left or the right, were not constructive.

"They divide our country and, if they were to take over political responsibility in Germany, would lead it into the abyss," Merz said.

Edited by: Natalie Muller

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