Merz says Germany agreed to acquire US Tomahawk missiles

• Germany has agreed with the US to acquire and station Tomahawk cruise missiles on its territory, announced Chancellor Friedrich Merz on July 9.
• The agreement was made during the NATO summit in Ankara, which Merz said exceeded his expectations.
• Germany aims to strengthen its defence against Russia while developing European missile systems in parallel.

BERLIN – Germany has agreed with the US government to acquire Tomahawk cruise missiles and station them on German territory, Chancellor Friedrich Merz told lawmakers in Berlin on July 9.

Merz said that he had met Washington on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara to seal the deal, adding that the summit had exceeded all of his expectations.

“In doing so, we are closing a critical strategic gap in our defence, while simultaneously working to develop our own European systems and station them in Europe,” he said.

The fate of the Tomahawks had been unclear after US President Donald Trump announced in May that he would reduce US military presence in Germany, which had been seen as a cancellation of a plan under the previous administration to deploy a US battalion with long-range Tomahawk missiles to Germany.

Berlin has pushed for the move as a powerful deterrent against Russia while Europeans develop such weapons of their own. REUTERS