Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on February 13, 2026
1 min readLast updated: February 13, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleGerman Chancellor Merz suggests a European nuclear deterrent in talks with France, aiming to bolster EU-US relations and strengthen NATO.
MUNICH, Feb 13 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Friday that he was holding talks with French president Emmanuel Macron over creating a joint European nuclear deterrent as urged on Europe to rebuild its relationship with its U.S. ally.
"We're not doing this by writing NATO off. We're doing it by building a strong, self-supporting European pillar within the alliance," he said in a speech opening the Munich Security Conference.
(Reporting by James Mackenzie and Sarah Marsh in Berlin; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
A nuclear deterrent is a military strategy that uses the threat of nuclear weapons to prevent adversaries from taking hostile actions.
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