Deutsche WellePolitics Germany ready for NATO leadership role, minister says Dmytro Hubenko with AFP, dpa, Reuters May 21, 2026
As NATO foreign ministers gather in Sweden, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul has made it clear Berlin is ready to take on a greater leadership role in the alliance.
Ahead of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in the Swedish port city of Helsingborg on Thursday, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul stressed Berlin’s readiness to assume greater leadership responsibility in NATO.
“Our goal is a new burden-sharing arrangement that reflects Germany’s and Europe’s economic and military potential,” he said in Berlin before departing for Sweden, adding that “Germany is accepting its leadership responsibility.”
“We want a stronger NATO with a greater role for Europe,” Wadephul said. “To achieve this, we want to pool the capabilities of our industries through more intensive defense cooperation.”
The minister added that Germany wants to reach NATO’s 5% spending target and strengthen its defense capabilities as quickly as possible.
At the 2025 NATO summit, the alliance agreed that member states should invest at least 3.5% of their gross domestic product in defense spending in the future. An additional 1.5% is to be allocated to defense-related spending, such as infrastructure, bringing the total target to 5% annually by 2035.
Rutte: Many members ‘not spending enough’ to support Ukraine
Wadephul also announced that he intends to make “concrete proposals” on “how we can continue to strongly support Ukraine in defending freedom in Europe.” This includes ways in which NATO can benefit from the Ukrainian defense industry’s impressive achievements, according to the German minister.
Meanwhile, Mark Rutte, the chief of the military alliance, said that many NATO members are not contributing enough money to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Rutte told reporters in the Swedish city of Helsingborg ahead of the NATO ministers’ meeting that aid to Ukraine “is not evenly distributed now within NATO.”
“There is a limited amount of countries, including Sweden which is really punching above its weight when it comes to the support for Ukraine, and other countries like Canada and Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and Norway and also a couple of others,” he said.
“But there are also many not spending enough when it comes to the support for Ukraine,” he added.
Germany wants to invest billions to strengthen civil defense
Rubio criticizes NATO’s refusal to help on Iran
In addition to bolstering Europe’s defenses, the ministers are also set to discuss the war in Iran and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz during their meeting in Helsingborg.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected in Sweden on Friday. As he headed to the summit, he renewed his criticism of NATO for not supporting the US war on Iran.
President Donald Trump is “not asking them to send their fighter jets in. But they refuse to do anything,” Rubio told reporters. “We were very upset about that.”
Recently, following critical remarks by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Trump announced the withdrawal of 5,000 US troops from Germany.
There has also been confusion over whether the deployment of thousands of troops to Poland will proceed as planned.
Edited by: Sean Sinico
