German Chancellor General Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron visit Norvenig Air Base near Brühl, Germany, on July 17, 2026, for German-French defense talks as part of the 26th German-French Ministerial Council.
Sasha Schuermann | Getty Images News | Getty Images
German Defense Chief General Carsten Breuer was chosen Saturday as the next chairman of the NATO Military Council, the alliance’s top military authority and a key advisory body to political leaders.
The military leaders of the 32-nation alliance elected Breuer at a meeting in Copenhagen, and the current chairman, Italian Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, said in a post on X that Breuer would replace Dragone in the role next summer.
“Your operational judgment, deep familiarity with the alliance, and German military leadership will be of great benefit to NATO,” Dragone wrote, congratulating Breuer.
“At this challenging time for European and Atlantic security, the Department of Defense has confidence in you,” he added.
The committee is NATO’s senior military authority, with its chairman serving as the principal military advisor to the political leader, Secretary-General Mark Rutte.
Breuer takes office amid turmoil within the alliance. US President Donald Trump has called for European countries to assume primary responsibility for the continent’s defense, following decades of US guidance.
Many European governments have increased defense spending in recent years, both due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and President Trump’s threat to not honor U.S. commitments to NATO.
Germany, Europe’s largest economy, is leading the surge in spending. Berlin aims to double military spending to more than 200 billion euros ($230 billion) by 2030.
Breuer, a 61-year-old army officer, earned the nickname “Chancellor’s General” after then-Chancellor Olaf Scholz appointed him to head a crisis committee to help manage Germany’s response to the coronavirus pandemic in 2021 and 2022.
He joined the Bundeswehr’s air defense forces in 1984 and later attended the U.S. General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and German Army Staff Training in Hamburg. In 2014, he served with the NATO International Security Assistance Force in Kabul, Afghanistan.
The current commander of the German Armed Forces, Lieutenant General Christian Freud, is expected to succeed Breuer as head of the Wehrmacht by the end of the year.
