Germany, France commit to closer defence cooperation after jet project collapse

AFP/Global Watch | 2026-07-21

The leaders of France and Germany on Friday committed to deeper defence cooperation -- including on nuclear deterrence -- as they sought to move past the collapse of a flagship joint jet fighter project.

Speaking alongside French President Emmanuel Macron at a press conference after a joint meeting of the two governments, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that this year would see German troops join a French military nuclear exercise.

"This is complementary to our nuclear participation and deterrence within NATO, which we still hold to," he said.

Macron said earlier this year that Germany was one of eight countries which had agreed to participate in a French-led nuclear deterrence project.

However he has stressed that France -- one of Western Europe's two nuclear powers alongside the United Kingdom -- will retain tight control over nuclear decision-making.

For Macron, there is an urgent need to make progress in this area before next spring's presidential election in which far-right leader Marine Le Pen is a frontrunner to be his successor.

The prospect of a Le Pen presidency adds yet more uncertainty for European countries already scrambling to boost defense capabilities in the face of the Russian threat.

Merz also said Germany would take part in "a maneuver in the autumn held on the initiative of France" as part of the Coalition of the Willing group of Ukraine's allies.

"We will clarify together what form exactly this participation will take," he said.

At a meeting of the group on Monday, Macron said a Multinational Force for Ukraine, which would be deployed once the fighting ends, would hold exercises in the coming months in countries neighboring Ukraine "to validate our deployment plans and demonstrate that we are ready".

Historic site

On Friday morning, Merz welcomed Macron at the Noervenich air base near Cologne, with the two leaders emerging from a Super Puma helicopter -- itself a symbol of successful Franco-German cooperation.

They then led a joint defense and security council held next to a French Rafale jet and a Eurofighter, a key component of Germany's air force.

The full cabinets of both governments got together for talks in a castle near Cologne, where French president Charles de Gaulle and German chancellor Konrad Adenauer agreed on the idea of a friendship treaty between the two countries in 1962.

The two countries had been seeking to "bounce back" from last month's implosion of the joint Future Combat Air System (FCAS) fighter jet project, which fell victim to bickering between Airbus and France's Dassault.

There are also fears for another joint project, the Main Ground Combat System (MGCS), which aims to replace battle tanks used by France and Germany and has been buffeted by internal tensions since Germany's Rheinmetall entered the project.

Air defense has been another bone of contention, with Germany pushing its European Sky Shield Initiative (ESSI), which relies heavily on the American Patriot and the Israeli‑American Arrow‑3 systems.

France has refused to take part in this project, arguing that it would increase Europe's dependence on the United States and that the continent should instead seek to boost its own defense industry.

European competitiveness, the EU's budget, digital regulation and initiatives to fight disinformation were also on the agenda for the joint cabinet meeting.

On the subject of artificial intelligence, the two countries want to discuss ways to enable Europe to compete with the United States and China by pooling computing capacity and creating a European structure to recruit the best researchers.