Overview
- French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz met at the Franco‑German Defence and Security Council at Nörvenich on Friday and pledged renewed momentum on deterrence, early warning, deep strike and shared capabilities.
- Germany will for the first time send military personnel to participate in France’s Poker nuclear exercise this autumn, a step Paris and Berlin say will be tightly controlled by France’s nuclear command.
- Operational signals during the talks included the deployment of French Rafale jets to Nörvenich and a French aircraft refuelling a German Eurofighter in flight to demonstrate practical cooperation.
- Officials agreed to create joint declarations and a steering group to pursue cooperation on a digital ‘combat cloud’, missile and air defence, space programs such as IRIS², and emerging technologies like AI and quantum.
- The move aims to repair ties after the collapse of the FCAS fighter project while Germany stressed any new French‑led deterrence scheme must remain complementary to NATO to avoid separate European security zones.