Europe aims to close long-range weapons gap

European allies acknowledge a shortfall in long-range weapons and intend to close this gap as soon as possible.

Friedrich Merz made this statement at a press conference following the NATO summit in Ankara, CE Report quotes Ukrinform.

“We see this capability gap and will close it as soon as possible. Intensive negotiations are underway on this matter, but they are not yet complete,” said the German chancellor.

According to him, Europe already has the necessary weapons systems, but there are not enough of them: “We already have the necessary weapons. They are very complex and very expensive, but we already have them. We simply don’t have enough of them.”

Merz noted that allies have been intensively discussing additional purchases of such systems and their integration with other weapons systems over the past few weeks.

“The fact that these systems need to be procured and integrated with other systems has been the subject of intensive discussions in recent weeks. An agreement on this matter was also reached following a British and French initiative," the German chancellor said.

He clarified that this issue will now be addressed at the level of defense and foreign ministers.

Separately, the chancellor commented on the issue of Tomahawk missiles and the U.S. refusal to deploy them in Germany.

“First of all, regarding the Tomahawk issue: negotiations are not yet complete. Therefore, I cannot say anything definitive about this. But these negotiations are ongoing,” Merz emphasized.

He also reported that a declaration on the development of long-range weapons was signed in Ankara.

“We want to make rapid progress on the issue of long-range weapons—both at the European and transatlantic levels. Here in Ankara, we also signed a corresponding European declaration,” the German chancellor concluded.

As reported, during the NATO summit in Ankara, Lockheed Martin and Rheinmetall signed a memorandum of understanding to establish the first production facility outside the U.S. for ATACMS ballistic missiles in Germany.

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