BERLIN
\nGerman Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Wednesday stressed the need for NATO\u2019s nuclear deterrent amid Russia\u2019s nuclear threats.
\n\u201cWe take irresponsible Russian nuclear rhetoric very seriously. But we don\u2019t let that intimidate us either. As long as states like Russia possess nuclear weapons as part of their threat potential, NATO naturally needs a credible deterrent potential,\u201d Scholz told a security conference in Berlin.
\nHe referred once again to German plans to purchase US-made F-35 fighter jets to replace its aging fleet of Tornado nuclear-capable bombers.
\nScholz has overturned Berlin\u2019s decades-long policy toward Russia and pledged to end its energy dependence on Moscow in the wake of the Ukraine war, which has seen Germany abandon its traditional restraint and pacifism in security and defense matters.
\nThe chancellor had not been in office for 100 days when he gave one of the most remarkable speeches in the history of reunited Germany on Feb. 27.
\nIn front of a Bundestag, or German parliament, convened out-of-schedule to respond to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Scholz announced extraordinary defense expenditures in the form of a \u20ac100 billion ($104 billion) special fund and a commitment to surpass NATO members\u2019 spending target of 2% of their respective gross domestic products (GDPs) going forward.
\nHe also coined the term \u201cZeitenwende\u201d (roughly translated as \u201cturn of an era\u201d or perhaps \u201cwatershed\u201d) to describe a major paradigmatic shift in German security policy initiated by Russia\u2019s war.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BERLIN German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Wednesday stressed the need for NATO\u2019s nuclear deterrent amid Russia\u2019s nuclear threats. \u201cWe take irresponsible Russian nuclear rhetoric very seriously. But we don\u2019t let that intimidate us either. As long as states like Russia possess nuclear weapons as part of their threat potential, NATO naturally needs a credible deterrent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298733,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-298710","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n