Germany has reached an agreement with the US government to purchase Tomahawk cruise missiles and deploy them on German territory, Prime Minister Friedrich Merz told parliamentarians in Berlin on July 9.
Mr. Friedrich Merz said that he met with the US side on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara (Turkey) to finalize the agreement, and said that the summit exceeded all his expectations.
By doing so, we are filling an important strategic gap in the defense system, while striving to develop our own European systems and deploy them in Europe," he said.
The fate of the Tomahawk missiles was once unclear after President Donald Trump announced in May that he would reduce the US military presence in Germany. This move was once seen as canceling a plan under the previous administration to deploy a US battalion carrying long-range Tomahawk missiles to Germany.
Berlin has promoted this move as a strong deterrent against Russia, while European countries are developing similar weapons of their own.
