General Carsten Breuer, Germany’s Chief of Defence, has been elected chair of NATO’s Military Committee, the alliance’s highest military authority.
NATO’s 32 member states elected Breuer as the next chair at a meeting in Copenhagen, current chair Italian Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone said in a post on X.
Breuer will assume the position next summer, succeeding Dragone.
“Your operational judgement, your deep familiarity with this Alliance and your leadership of the German Armed Forces will serve NATO well,” Dragone said.
“The Chiefs of Defence have placed their trust in you at a demanding moment for Euro-Atlantic security,” he added.
The Military Committee advises NATO’s political leadership on military matters, with its chair serving as the principal military adviser to Secretary-General Mark Rutte.
Breuer will take over as NATO reassesses the balance of defence responsibilities between the United States and its European allies. US President Donald Trump has urged European members to assume greater responsibility for the continent’s security.
European governments have increased defence spending in response to Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and uncertainty over future US commitments to NATO.
Germany has been among the leading spenders, with Berlin planning to double defence expenditure to more than €200 billion ($230 billion) by 2030.
Breuer, 61, joined the Bundeswehr in 1984 as an air defence officer. He later attended the US Army Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and Germany’s general staff training in Hamburg.
He served with NATO’s International Security Assistance Force in Kabul in 2014.
Breuer gained the nickname “the chancellor’s general” after then-Chancellor Olaf Scholz appointed him to lead a crisis committee overseeing Germany’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021 and 2022.
Lieutenant General Christian Freuding, Germany’s current Army Chief, is expected to succeed Breuer as Chief of Defence before the end of the year.
