Germany’s coalition government has yet to take full power. However, experts are poring over the new promises to find out what these mean for Germany’s future.

Given the tension between Russia, Europe and Germany at the moment, many question marks surround Germany’s defence and foreign policies.

Social Democratic Party from the center will take control of Defense Ministry, while Annalena Baerbock (co-leader of Green Party) is expected to assume the Foreign Ministry.

Baerbock stated previously that she will deal with autoritarian governments such as those in China or Russia through “dialogue, toughness”, however there are doubts about the toughness of the new, left-leaning and ecologically-minded coalition minister.

Germany has found itself in an awkward situation because while Russia has been accused of orchestrating a gas crisis with Europe, and of readying itself for a potential conflict with EU-ally Ukraine — both accusations that Russia denies — the final touches have also been made to the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project that will see Russian gas supplies sent to Germany.

On Wednesday, Germany’s new coalition — made up of the Social Democrats and Greens and center-right Free Democrats — announced a coalition deal in which it signaled that Germany will remain committed to NATO and its nuclear-sharing agreement.

Three NATO members — the U.S., France and the U.K. — have nuclear weapons. Germany doesn’t have any, but it does possess some U.S. nukes that German fighter planes might deploy in an emergency. These weapons can be used to deter military aggression by countries such as Russia.

NATO states that NATO’s nuclear deterrence depends on the U.S. military weapons and support capabilities, and infrastructures provided by Allies.

The German coalition appears to be willing to let those weapons stay on German soil. They stated, “As long as nuclear arms play a role within NATO’s strategic conceptual, Germany has an interest to participate in strategic discussions, planning processes,” Wednesday’s document read.

For a long time, Germany had an uneasy relationship with NATO members, especially the U.S. when it came to defense spending. Berlin has been increasing its defense spending to meet the 2014 NATO promise that members should allocate 2% of their gross domestic products for defense.

Germany’s defense spending in 2021 was $53 billion. This represents a 33% increase over the year before, but still below the 2% limit.it stood at 1.53% of GDP in 2021, according to NATO estimates).

Trump used to chide Germany many times for its record on defense spending. He accused Germany of being “delinquent” while profiting from U.S. soldiers stationed there.

Trump declared then that he would withdraw nearly 12,000 U.S. soldiers from Germany last summer, but this proposal was halted by President Joe Biden.

Daniela Schwarzer is the executive director of Eurasia Open Societies Foundations Europe. She said that the coalition would likely continue to raise defense spending, with or without any pressure from the U.S.

She said that defense spending has increased in recent years and that it was important that the German debate emphasizes that not the U.S. President is asking for it, but the prior German government had made that promise.

Given the positioning of the SPD and Greens on defense, with both appearing to favor more military cooperation at a European level — the SPD, for example, is in favor of a European army — Schwarzer expected defense spending to continue to rise.

“This is the coalition that has two left parties [the SPD and Greens]They aren’t the first to think about defense spending. What I believe is likely to occur is that Germany will not increase its defense spending in huge jumps, but rather in gradual terms… [Party]It’s possible that Germany will also invest in foreign policy areas, other than defense,” said the foreign minister.

“All-in-all I think we’ve got the right ingredients to allow Germany to have a more prominent role not only within the EU, but internationally.” she stated.

Annalena Bärbock, the new Foreign Minister, stated that she was not going to adopt a passive approach to global geopolitics. She said on Wednesday that Germany needed a proactive and communicative approach in its foreign policy.

She stated that “we are at a time when the crises occurring directly around us, in Central Europe, are becoming more serious” at Wednesday’s news conference after the announcement of the coalition agreement.

Take a look at Belarus and Europe from the outside. We have all committed to returning to an active European foreign policy that is based on diplomacy, dialogue and value-based cooperation.