Christine Lambrecht made her comments as Ukraine pressed its counteroffensive in the country’s east and Russia vowed to continue the invasion until all its military objectives were met. The war increased pressure on Germany to step up its contribution to the Western alliance, despite historical reservations that it would play a larger role after the Second World War. Lambrecht argued that Berlin did so for reasons “to do with our size, our geographical position, our economic power, in short our weight”. In comments to the German Council on Foreign Relations he added: “This makes us a leading power whether we like it or not – also in a military sense. Lambrecht said the US would remain Europe’s main patron and that “there can be no substitute for the US nuclear deterrent for the foreseeable future”. The United Kingdom and France, both nuclear powers, have been Europe’s strongest military powers for more than 70 years. But he argued that rising tensions between Washington and Beijing over Taiwan and the US pivot to the Asia-Pacific region meant “we are being called upon to do more than before for Europe”. He added: “Germany is ready to make a decisive contribution to the fair distribution of burdens.” Lambrecht acknowledged that Germany’s Nazi-era crimes and the “war of destruction” its military waged in Europe between 1939 and 1945 had turned “skepticism about the military into a kind of virtue.” But he said Germany could only guarantee peace and freedom for its people if it abandoned its “old self-image” and defined security as “the central task of this country”. Echoing a landmark speech this year by Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the defense minister said Germany needed to meet the NATO target of spending 2% of GDP on defense “in the long term”, not just for the next two years. “We have to avoid a situation where, in a few years, we can’t afford to maintain the equipment we’re buying now,” he said, reiterating plans to have three combat-ready military divisions by the early 2030s. The success of the Ukrainian counteroffensive, which has reclaimed more than 3,000 square kilometers of territory in the east, has also raised expectations that the West will increase arms deliveries to Kyiv. The command of operations in southern Ukraine announced on Monday that it had also liberated about 500 square kilometers of territory from Russian forces. “The tone has changed, without a doubt,” said a senior European diplomat. “You won’t really hear anyone speaking out against more guns now, just a chorus of supporters and one or two staying silent.” But some allies accuse Berlin of less than wholehearted support for Kyiv. Claudia Major, a military analyst at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, said many in Central and Eastern Europe felt that Berlin’s help so far had been “too slow, hesitant and small-scale”. Lambrecht rejected such accusations while reiterating that Berlin had no intention of accepting Kiev’s request for tanks. He added that no country has so far “delivered Western-made infantry fighting vehicles or main battle tanks.” The defense minister also called for strict rules on military exports to be relaxed to allow Germany to participate in European defense projects. “What partner is going to co-invest with us in projects when they will always be worried that we will prevent the export [of the weapons]?” Her speech came less than two weeks after Scholz’s cabinet formally announced the start of work on a national security strategy, the first in Germany’s history, that will redefine its foreign and defense policy.

Lambrecht said the West must “draw the necessary lessons” from the Russian invasion of Ukraine – that “we ourselves need strong, indirect troops so that we can defend ourselves and our alliance if necessary.” He said Germans were used to seeing the Bundeswehr as a kind of disaster relief agency that helped with pandemics, floods and forest fires and took part in missions in places like Afghanistan and Mali. “But those times are over,” he added. Additional reporting by Henry Foy and Polina Ivanova