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14-02-2024
BRUSSELS/ LONDON: Europe will need 10 years before it is fully ready to defend itself, the boss of Germany’s biggest defence firm, Rheinmetall, told media.
Armin Papperger said that ammunition stocks are currently “empty”.
He made the comments during a visit by Chancellor Olaf Scholz at a foundation-laying ceremony for a major new arms manufacturing plant in Lower Saxony.
Defence Minister Boris Pistorius and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen were also in attendance.
The comments come a day after comments by US presidential hopeful Donald Trump sparked fresh alarm in Europe.
The frontrunner for the Republican nomination said he once told a world leader he would not protect NATO members who don’t pay their dues and would even “encourage” aggressors to “do whatever the hell they want”.
Rheinmetall has said it will invest more than $300m (£274m) in the new facility. It is eventually expected to produce 200,000 rounds of artillery shells annually.
Papperger said that a “long time” would be needed to prepare against an “aggressor who wants to fight against NATO”.
“We are fine in three, four years – but to be really prepared, we need 10 years,” he said.
“We have to produce 1.5 million rounds (of ammunition) in Europe,” Papperger added. He said a vast amount of Europe’s ammunition was sent to Ukraine, leaving little for European stocks.
“As long as we have war, we have to help Ukraine, but later we [will] need five years at a minimum and 10 years to really fill [ammunition stocks] up,” he said.
Chancellor Scholz refused to say whether he was concerned about Trump’s comments, saying that he was “absolutely sure” that NATO was “of essence” for the US, Canada and European countries.
“We stick to it, the President of United States sticks to it and I’m sure the American people will do so also,” he went on but he did say that Russian President Vladimir Putin had shown “imperial ambitions” and added: “If you want peace, you have to successfully deter possible aggressors.”
Asked by media whether she thought that Europe needed to be ready to go at it alone if the US withdrew its support, Frederiksen said Europe had to be ready “no matter what”. She added that the “more and more aggressive Russia” was proof that Europe had to scale up.
“We have to speed up and that’s the reason why I’m here today,” she said.
It’s nearly two years since Chancellor Scholz declared Zeitenwende, a turning point in Germany’s foreign and defence policy following President Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
There was widespread recognition that a “change through trade” policy with Russia had failed.
Allies had hoped that Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, would take an increasingly assertive role in security and shed its traditional caution. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
