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Germany's highest-ranking general elected as Chair of NATO's Military Committee · THE DAILY BRIEF

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  Speaker 1: Germany's highest-ranking military officer, General Karsten Breuer, has been elected
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  Speaker 1: to chair NATO's military committee. The role makes him the
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  Speaker 1: principal military advisor to NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. General Breuer,
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  Speaker 1: seen here on the right alongside German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius,
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  Speaker 1: currently serves as Germany's Chief of Defence. He'll take over
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  Speaker 1: from Admiral Giuseppe Cavodragonni in July 2027. Many within the
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  Speaker 1: alliance see Breuer's election as recognition of Germany's significant recent
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  Speaker 1: contribution to strengthening European defence capabilities. Let's speak now to
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  Speaker 1: DW correspondent and NATO expert Terry Schultz. Hi, Terry. Can
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  Speaker 1: you tell us more about the position to which Karsten
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  Speaker 1: Breuer has just been elected and what you think he'll
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  Speaker 1: bring to the role?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, this takes General Breuer really out of an operational position.
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  Speaker 2: He was chief of defense for Germany and makes him
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  Speaker 2: the military advisor to Secretary General Mark Rutte. That means
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  Speaker 2: that he'll be coordinating positions among the 32 NATO allies,
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  Speaker 2: talking to the military advisors that they have there at
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  Speaker 2: NATO's political headquarters and not the military headquarters down in Mons.
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  Speaker 2: It puts him in, you speaking into the secretary general's
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  Speaker 2: ear about the military opinions on whatever is being discussed
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  Speaker 2: politically there. And Breuer is a really interesting figure. You know,
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  Speaker 2: he has been extremely outspoken for a general and especially
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  Speaker 2: for a German general about what he sees as the
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  Speaker 2: threat from Russia. Now, this is something that a lot
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  Speaker 2: of top military officials perhaps don't speak about so openly,
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  Speaker 2: but he has done so. He brought forward the timeline
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  Speaker 2: on which he thought that Russia may be preparing to
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  Speaker 2: make an attack on NATO up to 2029, one of
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  Speaker 2: the first really top-ranking military officials in NATO to do that.
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  Speaker 2: And he's got a really interesting background. Besides that, he
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  Speaker 2: led Germany's COVID task force, so sort of stepping out
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  Speaker 2: of the direct military position for that as well. So
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  Speaker 2: I think with such an outspoken guy taking this position,
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  Speaker 2: it also really shows that NATO feels that this is
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  Speaker 2: valuable at this time.
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  Speaker 1: And do you think it's significant that a German military
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  Speaker 1: officer has been selected as the head of the military
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  Speaker 1: committee at a time when Germany itself is expanding its
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  Speaker 1: military budget and is aiming to have the largest conventional
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  Speaker 1: military in Europe?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's certainly not a coincidence. If Germany weren't doing
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  Speaker 2: those things, a German general would have a hard time
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  Speaker 2: gaining the confidence of all of his other counterparts to
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  Speaker 2: actually be elected to this position. So it's extremely important
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  Speaker 2: that Germany has upped its defense spending dramatically, has increased
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  Speaker 2: taken these bold measures, saying, as you mentioned, that it
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  Speaker 2: wants to have the largest army in Europe. Germany used
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  Speaker 2: to play a much less prominent role inside NATO, and
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  Speaker 2: it didn't even want to be prominent at that time,
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  Speaker 2: saying that nobody wants to see a really strong Germany.
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  Speaker 2: And actually, the other allies did want to see a
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  Speaker 2: strong Germany. So You know, it was kind of slow
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  Speaker 2: to get to the 2 percent of GDP mark that
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  Speaker 2: was envisioned by the year 2024. And now Germany is
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  Speaker 2: going to have to work very hard to move up
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  Speaker 2: to the 5 percent of GDP mark. But the government
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  Speaker 2: has committed to doing that. And in fact, General Breuer
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  Speaker 2: himself was one of the driving forces behind that. He
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  Speaker 2: says Germany absolutely has to be ready, as does the
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  Speaker 2: rest of NATO. And he's now going to be playing
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  Speaker 2: a much more pivotal role in seeing that the alliance
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  Speaker 2: can do that.
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  Speaker 1: And Terry, what else was on the agenda as the
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  Speaker 1: military chiefs met in Copenhagen?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, the press conference there after their meeting really ran
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  Speaker 2: the gamut of the challenges that NATO faces now. They did,
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  Speaker 2: of course, welcome the appointment of General Breuer to start
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  Speaker 2: the beginning of next year. They also welcomed the agreement
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  Speaker 2: made between the United States, Greenland and Denmark that hopefully
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  Speaker 2: that crisis will be over. And then they talked a
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  Speaker 2: lot about Russia's hybrid attacks on Europe. Germany, again, has
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  Speaker 2: been one of the key targets. of these attacks that
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  Speaker 2: are attributed to Russia, at least in these most recent
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  Speaker 2: cases of the explosive-laden drones that were found at Leipzig Airport. But,
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  Speaker 2: you know, we're seeing these kind of attacks take place
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  Speaker 2: all across Europe. And much of the presumption is that
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  Speaker 2: those attacks are being launched by Russia. Of course, attribution
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  Speaker 2: takes quite a while. They also talked about another concern
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  Speaker 2: of the European NATO allies, that as they're facing these
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  Speaker 2: aggressive moves from Moscow, that the United States is talking
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  Speaker 2: about withdrawing troops. Of course, that's been on the table
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  Speaker 2: for a long time now. But just in recent days,
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  Speaker 2: we've heard that that number may be 25,000 troops pulled
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  Speaker 2: back from Europe. Those, of course, could come from Germany.
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  Speaker 2: One of the places where the concentration is highest. So
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  Speaker 2: allies are concerned about that. They don't have the specifics
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  Speaker 2: from the United States yet, but that's something that comes
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  Speaker 2: up any time leaders of NATO countries get together, Tommy.
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  Speaker 1: Okay. DW correspondent Terry Schultz, thank you.