Germany Plan to share allies' nuclear weaponry

Germany's chancellor-to-be, Friedrich Merz, has said he will reach out to France and Britain to discuss the sharing of nuclear weapons, but cautioned that such a move could not be a replacement for the US's existing protective "shield" over Europe.

- Kate Connolly

"The sharing of nuclear weapons is an issue we need to talk about," Merz said in a wide-ranging interview yesterday with the broadcaster Deutschlandfunk (DLF). "We have to be stronger together in nuclear deterrence."

Merz, an erstwhile passionate transatlanticist who has spoken out in recent weeks on Donald Trump and Europe's need to be "independent", said he hoped the US "nuclear shield" would remain in place, and that European weapons should be viewed as a "complement" to it.

"We should talk with both countries [France and Britain] always, and in addition, from the perspective of supplementing the American nuclear shield, which we of course want to see maintained," he said. In a guarded reference to Trump, Merz said: "The changed global security situation now necessitates that we Europeans discuss this matter together."