German Chancellor: I Have Started Talks with Pres. Macron on ‘European Nuclear Deterrence’

TRANSCRIPT:

MERZ (via translator): "Maybe some people don’t know it, Article 42 of the Treaty on European Union, we commit ourselves to provide mutual assistance in case of an armed attack in Europe, so we need to spell out now how we want to organize this at the European level, not to replace NATO or, but as a self-sustained strong pillar within the alliance. I have started first talks with the French president Emmanuel Macron about European nuclear deterrence and, ladies and gentlemen, to be clear, we absolutely stick to our legal obligations. This will be fully embedded in our nuclear sharing within NATO, and we will not have zones of different security levels in Europe. And the European defense industry, it finally needs to show it’s mettle. Three big S's — standardization scaling and simplification of weapon systems — will have to be organized in a European framework. We’re tapping a huge potential by doing so."