German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius has shown himself open to a debate on the planned deployment of long-range US weapons in Germany.
"[The debate is] important so that we as a society can, after weighing all the arguments, come to a position that we can all live with," the Social Democrat (SPD) politician told the broadsheet daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ).
"We need this public debate to make it clear how serious the situation is: On the one hand, we are experiencing a new threat situation in Europe due to the aggressive stance of Russia, and on the other hand, we have a capability gap that we can only close in the short term with the help of our US allies until we have developed these weapons ourselves," said Pistorius.
On the sidelines of a NATO summit in Washington, the US government and the German government announced that, from 2026, the US intends to once again station intermediate-range weapons with conventional warheads in Germany, which would reach far into Russia.
These are expected to include Tomahawk cruise missiles with a range of up to 2,500 kilometres, SM-6 missiles and newly developed hypersonic weapons.
Criticism from within his own party ranks
Pistorius has faced criticism from his own party for this stance. For example, SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich warned of the risk of military escalation.
SPD Bundestag member Ralf Stegner spoke out against further armament.
SPD left-wing members demanded that the party grass roots be involved in the discussion on this issue.
The defence minister told the FAZ that his duty was to protect people from external dangers.
"And I have held this position multiple times in public since the announcement of this plan at the NATO summit in Washington and have received much support for it," Pistorius said.
"It goes without saying that we also have discussions behind closed doors within the parliamentary group." He emphasized that the debate did not have "sharp opposition within the SPD."
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