Germany strikes deal with US to acquire Tomahawk missiles

Germany has reached an agreement with the United States to purchase Tomahawk cruise missiles and deploy them on German territory, Chancellor Friedrich Merz told lawmakers in the Bundestag, Reuters reports.

Merz said the agreement was finalized during talks with the US administration on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara, describing the gathering as having "exceeded all of my expectations."

"In doing so, we are closing a critical strategic gap in our defence, while simultaneously working to develop our own European systems and station them in Europe," he said.

The future of the Tomahawk deployment had been uncertain after US President Donald Trump announced in May that he would reduce the American military presence in Germany. The move had been widely interpreted as effectively shelving plans by the previous US administration to deploy a battalion equipped with long-range Tomahawk missiles to the country.

Berlin has long advocated the deployment as a powerful deterrent against Russia while European nations continue developing indigenous long-range missile capabilities.

By Vafa Guliyeva