Agency Report –
Munich – German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said on Friday that he wants to agree a road map with the United States and other NATO allies for a new division of defence responsibilities and tasks in Europe.
Pistorius said on Friday while attending the Munich Security Conference that he’s already heard verbal agreement from other leaders about the need for such a “road map.”
The minister said it has long been known that the United States wanted to increase its military involvement in the Indo-Pacific and the Arctic regions, which means that European allies would need to take on greater responsibility for their own collective defence.
However, there should not be any dangerous capability gaps if there is a change in burden-sharing, he said, and added that it is clear that Germany and the Europeans would have to invest significantly more in defence.
If the US “does more in the Indo-Pacific, then nobody in Europe will be able to demand that they do just as much in Europe in terms of conventional deterrence as in the past,” said Pistorius.
“So to believe that we could compensate within a year for what the Americans reduce in the course of just a few months is illusory, it won’t work,” he said.
