German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock spoke out in support of U.S. long-range missiles being stationed in Germany, countering criticism from within her government coalition.
“We must protect ourselves and our Baltic partners against this, including through increased deterrence and additional stand-off weapons,” Baerbock said in an interview with the Funke Media Group’s Sunday newspapers.
Earlier this month, Germany and the U.S. released a joint statement indicating that Washington would begin “episodic deployments of the long-range fires capabilities of its Multi-Domain Task Force in Germany in 2026.”
Following the announcement, Rolf Mützenich, parliamentary leader of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party, warned that the “danger of an unintentional military escalation is considerable,” underlining that the missiles which could be stationed in Germany have “very short warning time and open up new technological capabilities.”
The U.S. listed Tomahawk cruise missiles, which can travel up to 2,500 kilometers, and hypersonic weapons currently being developed with the ability of flying at many times the speed of sound, among the capabilities which could be stationed in Germany.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has “continuously expanded the arsenal with which he threatens our freedom in Europe,” Baerbock said, adding that reluctance over any additional deterrence “would not only be irresponsible, but also naïve towards an ice-cold Kremlin.”
Baerbock, with the Greens, had already found herself at odds with the Social Democrats in a debate over sending Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine. “Isn’t it time we not only talked about how to fight a war, but also thought about how to freeze a war and later end it?” Mützenich then said during a debate in parliament.