German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has committed to a joint defense project with France.
During a speech at the Bundeswehr conference, he stated, according to n-tv.de, that the so-called European Sky Shield Initiative for European air defense, initiated by Germany, is a central element for the security of Germany and Europe. Moreover, he said that this initiative could be a starting point for even closer arms cooperation within the EU. Scholz emphasized, “In this sense, we have advanced the FCAS combat aircraft project with France and Spain and will now also rapidly advance the MGCS main battle tank project under German leadership with France.”
Additionally, Scholz, as reported by n-tv.de, expects a very long war. He sees no signs that Russia would end its war of aggression against Ukraine and withdraw troops. “We must be prepared for the war to last a very long time,” he said at the Bundeswehr conference in Berlin. However, Scholz pointed out that the war has already lasted significantly longer than Russian President Vladimir Putin had predicted.
Image: President.gov.ua, Olaf Scholz Volodymyr Zelenskyy 2022-02-14 62, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (no changes made)