Western rules-based order ‘no longer exists’ – Merz

The EU needs to rapidly arm itself as the world enters a new era of great-power struggle, the German chancellor has claimed

European nations have to accept that the post-Cold War liberal “rules-based international order” is no more, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told the Munich Security Conference on Friday. The EU and its members need to rapidly adapt to the new reality by arming themselves, he claimed.

His words came as Berlin seeks to circumvent EU rules governing budget deficits and competition to save Germany’s flagging economy through a massive rearmament program. The bloc’s biggest economy plans to spend $582 billion on defense by 2029 amid an ongoing recession. The nation’s central bank warned last year that the government is on track for its largest budget deficit since the early 1990s.

“The international order based on rights and rules… no longer exists,” Merz declared at the forum. “The United States claim to leadership has been challenged and possibly lost,” he stated, pointing to what he called Russia’s “violent revisionism” and China’s desire to “be a leader in shaping the world.”

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The EU needs to “accept this new reality today” that involves “a battle for spheres of influence” and where “natural resources, technologies and supply chains are becoming bargaining chips in the zero-sum game of the major powers.”

“Our biggest priority is to strengthen Europe within NATO,” he said, vowing to “invest hundreds of billions of euros [into the military] over the coming years” and to continue to support Kiev in its conflict with Moscow.

Merz also reiterated his pledge to make the German military the “strongest conventional army in Europe” and to “protect our free democratic order against internal and external enemies.” He also announced talks with French President Emmanuel Macron on the EU’s own “nuclear deterrence.”

Germany has been actively hyping up the Russian threat narrative to justify increased military spending. German officials have set 2029 as the deadline for the Bundeswehr to be “war-ready” for a potential conflict with Russia – something that Moscow dismissed as “nonsense.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said last year that “with their current leaders, modern Germany and the rest of Europe are transforming into a Fourth Reich.”