German Chief of Defence General Carsten Breuer has been elected as the next chairman of NATO’s Military Committee, the alliance’s highest military authority.
NATO’s 32 military chiefs elected the 61-year-old German general during a meeting in Copenhagen on Saturday. Breuer will assume the position next summer, succeeding Italian Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone.
The NATO Military Committee serves as the alliance’s senior military body and provides military advice to NATO’s political leadership, including Secretary General Mark Rutte.
Breuer’s appointment comes as NATO faces significant changes in European defence policy. US President Donald Trump has urged European members to take greater responsibility for the continent’s defence, while many European countries have increased military spending following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and concerns over the future of US commitments to NATO.
Germany has been among the countries increasing defence spending. Berlin plans to raise its annual military expenditure to more than €200 billion by 2030.
Breuer joined the German armed forces in 1984 and began his career in an air-defence unit. He later attended the US General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and Germany’s general staff training in Hamburg. He also served with NATO’s International Security Assistance Force in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2014.
He became known as the “chancellor’s general” after former German Chancellor Olaf Scholz appointed him to lead a crisis committee overseeing Germany’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021 and 2022.
Germany’s current army chief, Lieutenant General Christian Freuding, is expected to succeed Breuer as Germany’s chief of defence before the end of this year.
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