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London: Germany’s first-ever national security strategy names Russia as the biggest threat to peace and describes China as both a partner and competitor that uses its economic clout for political gain.
“Today’s Russia is, for now, the most significant threat to peace and security in the Euro-Atlantic area,” the strategy reads.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz launching the national security strategy in Berlin on Wednesday.Credit: Bloomberg
“China is a partner, competitor and systemic rival. We see that the elements of rivalry and competition have increased in recent years, but at the same time, China remains a partner without whom many of the most pressing global challenges cannot be resolved.
“In global terms, the Indo-Pacific, too, remains of special significance to Germany and Europe.”
Germany is also preparing to release a China-specific strategy, which has been delayed.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz unveiled the long-delayed strategy alongside Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, of the Greens, and the finance, defence and interior ministers on Wednesday (local time).
The strategy, the result of the formation of Scholz’s three-party coalition government, was agreed before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which exposed Germany’s dependence on Russian gas. The war has also highlighted the historically low investment in Germany’s armed forces.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing in November. Germany’s security strategy lists China as both friend and competitor.Credit: AP
The Russian invasion triggered Scholz’s famous Zeitenwende speech, which marked a turning point away from Germany’s post-war pacifism and towards the prioritisation of defence and security, including a commitment to boost spending on the military in line with the NATO baseline of 2 per cent of GDP.
The new strategy had clarified that this spending would be achieved first in 2024, but then over a “multi-annual average.”
The document sets out Germany’s ambitions to build its own resilience and diversity in its critical supply lines, especially critical minerals, and an ambition to boost its cyber defences, but it stops short of providing new policy proposals to meet these aims.
“The national security strategy is guided by the concept of integrated security,” Scholz said.
“It is about the entire spectrum of our security [and] that involves diplomacy as well police, fire brigades, the agencies for technical relief, development, corporations, cybersecurity and the resilience of supply chains.”
Scholz said the strategy was the start and not the end point of Germany’s continuing effort to connect all levels of society to strengthen the country’s long-term security.
Notably, the document does not call for the creation of a national security council. The idea fell victim to internal fighting between the trio of parties that comprise Germany’s coalition government.
“What would be the added value of a body that would be institutionalised and we thought it wouldn’t make a difference,” Scholz said.
Baerbock said security in the modern era meant being able to buy essential medicines at the pharmacy and “that I’m not spied on by China when chatting with friends or manipulated by Russian bots while scrolling on social media”.
The document mentions China only six times and does not mention Taiwan at all.
It was met with widespread criticism.
“I had expected the federal government to present the draft for a national security strategy to the Bundestag (the parliament) as well,” Friedrich Merz, the CDU opposition leader, said.
“After reading it, I understand why it didn’t: it is anaemic in content, strategically irrelevant, and uncoordinated in foreign policy.”
A state interior minister from Scholz’s SDP party, Andy Grote, was quoted in Welt as describing it as “more of a security brochure than a sound strategy.”
Noah Barkin, a senior adviser at research provider Rhodium Group said while it was positive to see Germany outlining a security posture, it fell short.
“It is positive that the German government has put together a security strategy for the first time, but this document dances around many of the most important strategic challenges that Germany faces,” Barkin said.
“There is no mention of China’s deepening ties to Russia, no mention of Taiwan, and the growing nexus of trade, technology and security is given short shrift.
“The focus on Russia is certainly justified given the war in Ukraine, but that threat is treated in isolation – it is not embedded in a broader narrative of strategic competition.
“In a world of meat eaters, Germany remains very much vegetarian.”
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