There are no shortage of security challenges facing Europe, Kramp-Karrenbauer told a videoconference on Tuesday (20 April). Chief among them are the rise of a Chinese world view radically different from Europe’s, and a Russia positioning itself as the “illiberal and anti-democratic antipode of the West.” China is “the most difficult strategic challenge in the long term” for Europe despite being an “absolute necessity” to meet the major challenges of our time, including global warming, the minister said. China is also a threat to European cohesion because it exerts influence on various EU countries, she told the conference organised by the French Institute of International Relations and the Konrad-Adenauer Foundation. As for Russia, the minister said it was the most “concrete” threat Europe currently faced, as evidenced by the violation of Baltic airspace, cyberattacks, and disinformation campaigns.

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• France has often criticised Germany for its reluctance to engage in military interventions. NATO countries are also growing increasingly impatient with “German reticence”, a report by Paul Maurice for the Franco-German relations committee (Cerfa) said last week.

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>>  Read the whole article on Euractiv <<

>> Read Paul Maurice's Note : « Circumstantial Pacifism: Political Parties and the Participation of the Bundeswehr in Foreign Operations », Notes du Cerfa, No. 160, April 2021