![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/13106105-1024x682.jpg\")
\u201cHe\u2019s a very good man to deal with. He is difficult, but he is a very great representative of Germany.\u201d | Chris Kleponis\/EFE via EPA<\/p>\nMerz already met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in person three times since taking office \u2014 in Kyiv, during a European leaders summit in Tirana and most recently in Berlin. However, he\u2019s yet to deliver on the promise he made while in opposition: permitting the dispatch of German Taurus missiles. Instead, he\u2019s gone down the French route of strategic ambiguity to avoid publicly detailing what arms are being sent.<\/p>\n
And on the biggest question of all \u2014 persuading Trump to get Russian President Vladimir Putin to engage seriously in peace talks \u2014 neither Merz, Macron nor Starmer seem to be getting anywhere. They\u2019re entirely beholden to the whims of a White House still curiously mesmerized by the Kremlin.<\/p>\n
The biggest difference is in Berlin\u2019s tone is that Merz has talked of a \u201cstrategic cultural shift in foreign and security policy,\u201d transforming Germany from a \u201csleeping middle power\u201d into a \u201cleading middle power.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a very good man to deal with. He is difficult, but he is a very great representative of Germany.\u201d | Chris Kleponis\/EFE via EPA<\/p>\n
Minister of Foreign Affairs Johann Wadephul was the first to talk openly about the \u201c5 percent of GDP\u201d figure for military spending \u2014 a massive increase from the present-day figure that\u2019s just above 2 percent. Even though this number is only an aspiration, and includes 1.5 percent of what is termed \u201ccritical infrastructure\u201d \u2014 which can mean pretty much anything \u2014 it\u2019s still a step change. Trump himself has acknowledged that. But how quickly it will be reached, or if it will ever be reached, remains to be seen.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, structures of government are already being revamped in order to meet these new priorities. After years of procrastination, the Chancellery has established a National Security Council, with an overarching remit on all issues of security. And for the first time in decades, the Foreign Ministry is in the hands of Merz\u2019s ruling party, the Christian Democrats.<\/p>\n
Where Merz seems most confused, and where Germany continues to be paralyzed, however, is in its approach to the Middle East. Because of its Nazi history, Germany has made the survival of Israel a \u201creason of state.\u201d And it was particularly struck when reminded that the Hamas terrorist attacks on Oct. 7, 2023 constituted the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Merz already met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in person three times since taking office \u2014 in Kyiv,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169115,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[12915,473,7057,5293,32,34,2000,299,805,36,1945,11070,1824,70618,837,1815,807,2992,839,32949,7337,332,811,657,15,335,1116],"class_list":{"0":"post-169114","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-aid-and-development","9":"tag-defense","10":"tag-defense-budgets","11":"tag-diplomacy","12":"tag-donald-trump","13":"tag-emmanuel-macron","14":"tag-eu","15":"tag-europe","16":"tag-foreign-policy","17":"tag-france","18":"tag-friedrich-merz","19":"tag-german-politics","20":"tag-germany","21":"tag-germany-interpreted","22":"tag-israel","23":"tag-israel-hamas-war","24":"tag-keir-starmer","25":"tag-mark-rutte","26":"tag-middle-east","27":"tag-nato-summit","28":"tag-olaf-scholz","29":"tag-russia","30":"tag-security","31":"tag-ukraine","32":"tag-united-kingdom","33":"tag-war-in-ukraine","34":"tag-weapons"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114651015631170845","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}