Berliner Zeitung: Germany Can No Longer Trust the USA 0 10

The President of the United States is interested in deals and business, not in preserving values, democracy, and international law, noted in an interview with Berliner Zeitung former NATO Deputy Secretary General and ex-Deputy Director of the Federal Intelligence Service of Germany Arndt Freytag von Loringhoven. In Trump's world, authoritarian states are often closer to him than Europe. As a result, Germany can no longer trust the USA.

"We must continue to cooperate with the USA where possible and in our interests. However, we must become capable of making independent decisions. Europe will forever cease to hold the same significance for America, even after Trump."

This rift has made Europe realize its vulnerability. It is becoming a victim of hybrid attacks. A week has passed since the largest power outage in post-war Berlin's history – an event that he sees as a symbol of Germany's inability to achieve sustainable development.

"Europe is a digital colony of the USA. We have made ourselves dependent on America to such an extent that it imposes serious limitations on us in terms of security policy. Europe must become sovereign," he said.

According to the expert, this is a "very complex task." It is twofold. It involves self-defense and digital capabilities.

"And it means: developing our own capabilities in artificial intelligence, cloud technologies, chips, networks – the war of the future will be fought in a digital format and using autonomous systems. Besides nuclear energy, dependence on Americans is particularly high in so-called strategic means of supply, that is, in intelligence, sensors, and long-range air transport. Strategically, it is necessary to lay the foundation today for the development of independent digital capabilities."

In the long term, the expert previously defined what Germany needs to do in an interview with Die Welt: "We need a broad package of measures that includes both defensive and offensive tools. This includes strengthening intelligence capabilities to better understand how we are attacked in the information space and in critical infrastructure. Security services must adjust their priorities and be better prepared to carry out their work.

What About Nuclear Weapons?

The opinion that it is time for Germany to acquire its own nuclear weapons has become a bargaining chip. Commenting on such calls for Berlin to develop nuclear weapons, Arndt Freytag von Loringhoven reminded that the Federal Republic of Germany signed the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany, committing itself not to possess such weapons, "therefore this is legally impossible."

There are other arguments as well. "Not to mention what this would mean politically for our neighbors if Germany suddenly acquired a nuclear bomb. And I cannot imagine a European bomb at all. A bomb only works if a political leader can make a decision in real time," said von Loringhoven.

"By the time a decision is made, Europe will have long turned to ruins," he stated, with some degree of uncertainty, as the existing nuclear weapons in Europe do not raise much doubt for him.

He even reminded that France had proposed negotiations a few years ago to expand the French nuclear umbrella to include Germany.