German president backs new investment in military

President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has indirectly backed the German government's abrupt change in security policy in the face of the Ukraine war, reported dpa.

"We are challenged to strengthen our own defence capability," he said on Friday at a forum on the future of democracy at his official residence, the Bellevue Palace.

"The return of war to Europe teaches us that we must be able to defend ourselves against attacks."

Chancellor Olaf Scholz - like Steinmeier a member of the Social Democratic Party - announced a €100-billion investment in the military in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Germany also relaxed its historical restrictions on sending arms to crisis regions and non-NATO countries.

Only a democracy that can defend itself can achieve something diplomatically, Steinmeier said. "Because we can only negotiate successfully from a position of strength, not from a position of weakness."

Russia's invasion of Ukraine "cannot remain without a response," he said, citing the sanctions imposed by Western countries.

Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen also called for a strengthening of democracy. "After all, in our system it is impossible for a head of state to act against the interests of his own population, for people to be imprisoned for expressing their opinions, for a war to be started that one's own population does not want," he said.