BERLIN

Germany urged Europeans on Wednesday to shoulder more responsibility in NATO to cope with global security challenges.

"For our alliance to remain successful, we Europeans must assume more responsibility," Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said at a ceremony in Berlin to celebrate Germany’s accession to NATO 70 years ago.

He assured NATO allies of Germany’s leadership role in further building defense capabilities, vowing that "Germany will lead the way."

Pistorius pointed out that the Russian war against Ukraine has finally silenced the question of NATO's relevance.

Alliance defense is once again the priority. "And together, we will defend every inch of NATO territory, if necessary," he said. "The NATO summit in The Hague sends a very clear message: Article 5 is irrevocable. We stand by our alliance commitment.”

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, meanwhile, highlighted Germany’s leadership role as “the driving force in our alliance.”

“Your leadership and decisive actions are what we need to build a stronger, fairer and more lethal NATO. And it is what we need to preserve freedom and security, now and in the future,” he said.

Earlier in the day, Rutte warned that China and Russia present growing threats to the transatlantic alliance, confirming that NATO is preparing for a possible full-scale Russian attack on alliance territory in the coming years.

“Xi Jinping, the president of China, before he would attack Taiwan, he will first make a call into Moscow to ask (Russian President) Putin to keep us busy in this part of Europe,” Rutte told reporters at a news conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Berlin.

“China is rapidly building up its armed forces. They have now more ships sailing than the US. They will have another 100 ships sailing by 2030. They have now 1,000 nuclear warheads. This is not to organize parades in Beijing. This is indeed to use, to make use of this,” he asserted, predicting that China will try to somehow take control of Taiwan.

“Our assumption is, based on many discussions we have had, and of course, what we know from our sources is that the risk is increasingly there,” he said.