Tag: Germany

‘Europe has woken up’: Germany, France, Italy, Poland and the UK commit to produce low-cost drones within a year

2026.02.20 / NatSec.ca

Five NATO allies, Germany, France, Italy, Poland and the United Kingdom, on Friday February 20, 2026, committed to jointly develop new low-cost autonomous drones.

Defence ministers from the five countries – newly known as the E5 countries – meeting in Krakow, said they would launch an initiative called Low-Cost Effectors and Autonomous Platforms (LEAP) with the aim of producing drones within a year.

The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas, was in attendance for the announcement.

Press conference after the meeting of the E5 defense ministers

Watch this video on YouTube

Sources:

Politico: 5 NATO allies agree to produce low-cost drones https://www.politico.eu/article/5-nato-allies-agree-to-produce-low-cost-drones/

Euronews: E5 defence ministers in Krakow say ‘Europe has woken up’ https://www.euronews.com/2026/02/20/e5-defence-ministers-in-krakow-say-europe-has-woken-up

Germany is preparing its foreign intelligence service for a world where the US stops information sharing

2026.02.18 / NatSec.ca

Germany wants to boost and unfetter its country’s foreign intelligence service (BND), giving it much broader authority to perpetrate acts of sabotage, conduct offensive cyber operations and more aggressively carry out espionage.

Germany wants to continue working with the Americans, “but if a [U.S.] president, whoever that may be, decides in the future to go it alone without the Europeans … then we must be able to stand on our own two feet,” said Marc Henrichmann, the chairman of a special committee in Germany’s Bundestag that oversees the country’s intelligence services.

Source:

Nette Nöstlinger, Politico: Germany plans to give spies vast new powers in rollback of postwar restraints https://www.politico.eu/article/germany-foreign-intelligence-agency-power-bnd/

Faced with a growing Russian threat, German and British military chiefs make the case for rearmament

2026.02.16 / NatSec.ca

The defence chief of Germany’s Bundeswehr, General Carsten Breuer, and the United Kingdom’s chief of the defence staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, have made an unprecedented joint statement, published in The Guardian and German newspaper Die Welt, in which they make their “moral” case for rearmament and prepare for the threat of war with Russia.

Published in the wake of the Munich Security Conference, Breuer and Knighton said they were speaking “not merely as the military leaders of two of Europe’s largest military spenders, but as voices for a Europe that must now confront uncomfortable truths about its security.”

Europe is again considering setting up the equivalent of a UN Security Council

2026.01.20 / NatSec.ca

EU officials and leaders are getting behind the idea, while lawmakers are drafting legal options.

“We lack a proper united leadership platform to discuss the most important European defense issues,” EU Defense Commissioner Andrius Kubilius said last week. “It’s now an urgent task to turn this idea into reality.”

Sergey Lagodinsky, a German European Parliament lawmaker and vice president of the Greens group, is proposing a council gathering the leaders of Europe’s big six — Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland and the U.K. — alongside two rotating seats for smaller countries and the European Parliament president.

Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, France, and the UK are sending troops to Greenland [Updated]

2026.01.14 / NatSec.ca

Amid continued threats by Trump to annex Greenland, the territory of Denmark, a fellow NATO member, multiple outlets report Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Canada are sending troops to Greenland.

The deployment is not meant to spark a confrontation against the US, but a measure to ensure the common security interests of all NATO partners.

Europe and allies are working out plans should US make move on Greenland

2026.01.08 / NatSec.ca

France is working with partners on a plan over how to respond should the Americans act on its threat to take over Greenland, Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Wednesday, January 7, 2026.

Barrot said the subject would be raised at his meeting with the foreign ministers of Germany and Poland later in the day.

European leaders rally to support Denmark and Greenland

2026.01.06 / NatSec.ca

“Greenland belongs to its people, and only Denmark and Greenland can decide on matters concerning their relations,” the leaders of the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, and Denmark said in a joint statement on Tuesday January 6, 2026.

“NATO has made clear that the Arctic region is a priority and European Allies are stepping up,” the statement said. “We and many ‌other Allies have increased our presence, activities, and investments, to keep the Arctic safe and to deter adversaries.”

Russia is increasing covert attacks on key infrastructure in Germany

2026.01.05 / NatSec.ca

Russia is intensifying covert attacks on key infrastructure in Germany in a campaign of hybrid warfare that Berlin views as a possible prelude to a wider conflict, according to a confidential defence ministry document titled ;Operationsplan Deutschland (OPLAN),’ obtained by Bloomberg.

As Germany positions itself as NATO’s main hub in Europe, it expects to be first targeted by Russia covertly via hybrid attacks on energy and defence infrastructure. The document summarizes guidelines for cooperation between different levels of government and institutions in case of conflict with Russia.

Berlin power outage affecting 45,000 homes blamed on political extremists