The move is Berlin’s first ever national security strategy, launched at a moment when the security environment is tense, with Russia’s war on Ukraine and heightened geopolitical rivalry between China and the US.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, in a forward to the plan adopted by the cabinet on Wednesday, said: “Its goal is clear: to safeguard the security of our citizens and to make our contribution to the security of Europe.”
The strategy’s aim is to ensure that all means and instruments work together and mesh in order to strengthen Germany’s security against external threats. To this end, all relevant policy areas and actors are to be included.
This ranges from national and alliance defence to the protection of technical infrastructures and cyber and space security to raw material, energy and food security.
The plan also mentions civil defence and civil protection, development policy, protection against foreign influence and espionage as well as dealing with the climate crisis and pandemics.
The federal, state and local governments, business, science, civil society and citizens are to be involved.
“The primary task of German security policy is to ensure that we can continue to live in peace, freedom and security in our country in the heart of Europe,” the strategy’s information states.
To this end, Germany is unwaveringly committed to NATO and the European Union and is strengthening the Bundeswehr by investing an average of 2% of economic output in defence over many years, it said.
Source: dpa.
