Germany adopts National Security Strategy, names Russia as biggest threat

This is reported by Der Spiegel.

“For the first time in the history of our country, we have developed a national security strategy,” Scholz said.

According to him, this strategy is an important contribution to ensuring the safety of people in Germany.

“Without security, there is no freedom, no stability, no prosperity,” the German Chancellor emphasized.

Scholz added that the country's political environment has changed significantly over the past year and a half, in particular, he was referring to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and attacks on the Nord Stream gas pipeline.

“Security in the twenty-first century is more than military action and diplomacy. Russia's aggressive war against Ukraine has shown that peace and freedom do not fall from the sky. Germany's security challenges permeate all spheres of life. This applies, for example, to medicines, as well as cyberspace and water purity,” said German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. 

The national security strategy is called “Integrated Security for Germany” and consists of 76 pages. It states that “today's Russia is the greatest threat to peace and security in the Euro-Atlantic area in the foreseeable future.”

The National Security Strategy also stipulates that external and internal threats, which include military threats, cyber attacks, attacks on critical infrastructure, and climate change, should be considered together in the future. To do so, all means of defense must work together. In addition to military defense, these mechanisms include development cooperation, countering cyberattacks, and supply chain resilience.

The Strategy concept consists of three main points:

• Defense: This paragraph reaffirms the goal of spending 2% of the country's GDP on defense on average over several years; it also points to the need to strengthen civil defense and civil protection.

• Sustainability: The basic free-democratic order should be better protected from illegitimate external influences; this implies reducing dependence, for example, on raw materials.

• Perseverance: Quick action should help avoid crises or mitigate their effects; this will apply to climate, biodiversity, ecosystems and food security.

Thus, a number of laws should be derived from these three points. In particular, in the defense sector, this will include enhanced protection against espionage and sabotage, harmonization of European arms export controls, and expansion of cyber and space capabilities.

• On June 29, 2022  NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that Russia had turned from a strategic partner into a major threat to the Alliance. Because of this, he said, the Alliance's strategy has been radically revised.

• On June 13, amid recent reports of destroyed Leopard 2 tanks in Ukraine, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius promised to supply more Leopard 2 tanks. However, he noted that the country cannot replace every tank that breaks down.