Scholz opposes nuclear weapons for Germany

Berlin and its NATO allies should instead focus on developing conventional medium-range ballistic missiles, the chancellor says

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has spoken out against turning his country into a nuclear power. However, he defended an earlier decision to welcome US medium-range ballistic missiles on German soil from 2026.

In an interview on Sunday, ARD journalist Caren Miosga noted that Scholz’s approval of the upcoming American missile deployment last July had proven controversial in Germany. Some, including those within the chancellor’s Social Democratic Party (SPD), have criticized the move, she added.

The chancellor insisted that his party supports his vision on national defense by and large. “It is my stance and my opinion that we need something that protects us so that we are not attacked,” he said.

In line with this approach, Scholz has “supported [a plan under which] we, together with France and the UK, will develop conventional, non-nuclear rockets.” Since such a project cannot be implemented overnight, Berlin needs a stopgap solution in the form of US missiles to ensure its security in the meantime, the chancellor explained.

Commenting on speculation in the German media as to whether the country might need nuclear weapons to achieve this, Scholz said he was “strictly against Germany arming itself with nuclear [weapons]… This will meet with my decisive opposition.”

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Last month, speaking on the sidelines of a NATO meeting in Brussels, British Defence Secretary John Healey told reporters that his country was making a commitment to a “long-range missile program… alongside Germany, France, Poland, and a couple of others.”

During a NATO summit in Washington in July, the member states he mentioned signed a letter of intent to jointly develop missiles with a range beyond 500km (310 miles).

In late October, Healey and his German counterpart, Boris Pistorius, sealed a bilateral defense agreement, which envisaged the UK and Germany “working jointly to rapidly develop brand-new extended deep strike weapons that can travel further with more precision than current systems.”

Commenting on the upcoming deployment of US missiles to Germany back in July, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that Moscow would consider itself “free from the previously adopted moratorium on the deployment of medium- and short-range strike weapons.” The flight time of such missiles to targets on Russian territory would be about ten minutes, Putin noted, adding that they could also be equipped with nuclear warheads.

“We will take mirror measures to deploy [equivalent systems],” he said.