ah, britain's king charles continued his visit to germany today with an agenda heavily focused on defense and ukraine in germany or europe's largest donors of military financial and humanitarian support. the war in ukraine produced a seismic shift in germany, defense policy, with new commitments to spend billions more on defense. but a year after germany's chancellor announced his site and vendor people are still asking, well, where's the money? i'm feel gail in berlin and this is the day ah, georgia, germany's decision to provide so much military support to ukraine is extremely

brave. important, and welcome to come in today. it's already the 400 day of the war we have suffered to the war of aggression against ukraine has brought unimaginable suffering on so many innocent people should finish supporting our people now means understanding how important it is not to remain morally neutral to what's evil. the scourge of war is back in europe. also coming up the future of the european union's relations with china commission president ursula found the lions says that depends on how beijing deals with the war in ukraine. how china continues to interact with puddings. war will be a determining factor for each china relations. going follow it. welcome

to the day we start here in berlin. on the 2nd day off, king charles's visits to germany. the british monex trip becomes as the u. k. 6 to repair relations with its european allies since britain left the european union. but the b word breaks it was missing from the king speech to the german parliament . instead, he focused on anglo german friendship and issues of shared interest, especially the warren new cray standing ovations for the king alternating between german and english britons charles the 3rd praised the british german friendship in a historic speech that frequently drew laughter from lawmakers who disturbs the tools a gift is reveal it is of course there is also rivalry others on. i'm thinking in particular of the encounters between our football teams who spoke

for days. and with that in mind, it was very special that the english women's soccer team, the lionesses, became european champions by beating germany items. the gig and torch lamp are room for most of room but he also came with a serious political message. speaking of reconciliation and the need to learn from the past with europe, security once again threatened by russia's war of aggression against ukraine is barrios developed her leash to touch the world has not passively stood by isn't a should to even as we abhor the appalling scenes of destruction, we can take heart from our unity shop in defense of ukraine, of peace and freedom. the title don't craner dist reasons to

fright. charles then went on to visit some of the ukrainians, who have taken refuge in germany since russia's invasion, and highlighted how both germany and the u. k. are providing support side by side. also, militarily, now, was the message of his visit to a joined german british military unit, outside of berlin. will german arms manufacture cross? my 5, eggman says it's signed a contract with the country's armed forces to manufacture replacements for weapons sent to ukraine. but in a sent to 14 of the companies self propelled at peas at age 2000 artillery systems . and it's now ordered 10 new ones with options on more. well, this week, germany also announced the arrival of 18 leopard to tax and ukraine, after facing criticism for the glacial speed of delivery on its military plumber

says. the slowness was, in part because donating tanks and artillery systems depletes germany's capacity to defend itself. the open secret here is that the country's armed forces are face chronic shortages for years. and sadly, the problems run much deeper than just a lack of kit. the german mother, this infantry fighting vehicle, has become symbolic for the german military and its problems. the equipment, for instance, the model has been around for about 50 years, with some updates. the p. m. i was supposed to replace the mother years ago. but this more up to date high tech weapon is still not ready for action. acquiring helicopters, weapons, and handheld digital communication systems is also a problem. the bundeswehr is also short of munitions, grenades and missiles worth 20000000000 euros. is skip this, were i'd said pilot, there is no such thing as one central acquisition office with uptime. the defense

ministry has a planning department's adams under bundeswehr has its own planning department, but which includes members of the army, air force, and navy. there are very many people involved in procuring what is needed have been at us perhaps. and up until now, there was a tendency to go for top of the range product, but that's changing and plan to say they will buy more standard issue weaponry in future the bonus, whereas mission is one aspect which has shifted over the decades during the cold war the nature funded weaponry was trained on one enemy the communist eastern block . but after the war fell, there were no enemies, his site any more. after german reunification, the bulus where started sending troops and international peacekeeping and reconstruction missions in places like afghanistan. now the perceived threats as to move back closer home. the need to be able to respond quickly, does predicted from both. for example, this means that all units must be ready to be deployed, not including all equipment necessary. this has not been the case for years time

right now. many divisions have to borrow equipment from other divisions looking title, all spoken. rushes attack on ukraine led to a complete turn around the german defense policy. if you don't want the 24th of february 2020, to marked a historical turning point in the history of our continent, the federal government plans to release an additional $100000000000.00 euros in funding for bonds square equipment. but experts say 3 times that some is needed to adequately equip the german and forces and very little of that money has actually arrived. but this is because the german procurement process involves a lot of red tape so far. so it's not enough to just have money in the kitty to spend it. they have to revamp the entire system, douglas and without the port says and done. so german defense minister morris historian has a long to do list to bring a bundeswehr up to speed. let's get more armis from patrick vance. burke. he's

a president of the german armed forces. reservist organization is a colonel in the reserves and a former member of parliament for germany's opposition. a christian democrats. i'm so glad you could spare time. welcome to the w. i report they painted a rather bleak picture of germany's armed forces in procurement system. but i think it was fair, i think in a way, yes, because 30 years you can say we shrink the army or not just germany did it. a lot of countries did it because we thought we are surrounded by friends. we don't need this territorial defense anymore. we don't need this huge structure or 30 years, we would really reduced everything. and now we see territorial defense is important . we have to build up structures and that needs time. but it's not just the size of the of the armed forces is it is one thing to reduce numbers, but we had the embarrassing an incident or just a month or so ago where we were testing this, this new armed vehicle and it just fell over quite often german armed forces are

found not to be up to the task. it's true, but we don't have just this 16 or 18. i'm in for g tanks. we had much more of this just this were not working because they were, they're trained very hard and that's normal that a tank also breaks when he's really trained very hard. so in the end we have a good capability, but not in that size. and if you don't have the size, you have leaks in maintainance. so we have to build up structures that needs money that needs time and it needs the mindset that you want to do it. but this is germany. germany has the money. it's just every year since they're both the chancellor and i was the fighting. vander this historic turning point, reversing the country's previously cautious defense policy. it promised a 100000000000 euros. so can you understand why that money doesn't seem to have reached will anywhere yet? it's time that's true, but we don't start with a simple things. you showed the model,

there are several models we could use. i would use a model that's better than have no infantry tank. so i am for everything that makes us stronger in the convert. and so i think we're discussing too much about issues and we're not doing the right things fast enough. so because this has been a count, consistent criticism of germany big promises, lots of spending. where is it? long delays in getting stuff to talk to you crave. so what's the problem? i think there's not a problem. we have 30 percent already in the is a problem because everything comes late yet. but the word tightened. vendor is not because we are already 30 years talking about it. we were 30 years in a different direction, 180 degrees, different direction. and now we say we're building up territorial defense. again, we're building up the structures. we see now that we're not just on missions, we don't have our german military just for the missions. we now have to do

territorial defense. we have to be able to support our partners much more. and our partners also see that the territorial defense is important is you know, so the, just a site and then we'll get to the territorial defense. but i just want to press you on this notion, but everything's all right. we just need a bit of time because in today's news we, we heard that the defense ministry had to date, signed a contract to replace mobile artillery units that were sent to ukraine 9 months ago . so we send them to ukraine and then some bright spark in the defense, brazil, we should replace those rights. let's get a contractor and it takes 9 months. yeah. and even not all 14 of replaced was new ones, just 10 in the 1st step. so you're right in that point and you had it in your report before. um we have administrative structures that make such issues taking such a long time. we want to be faster in this i think it's possible. i think also the

european law gifts, as many, many chances to be faster. and i already mentioned that's a mindset issue. do we want to solve our problems or do we just see problems and not the solutions? and so do you think that is a mindset problem then within the german defense establishment, that there is a mindset problem? because 30 years you've been just there to describe what's not possible because military shrink for 30 years. and each commander, each officer was just explaining what is possible, and most things are not possible. and now we have to think big again, build up strengths for structures, make things possible. that's a total turn around. and that's why the word tighten band is also for the mindset important. i thank you for your francs. i'm a little bit shocked. assuming if you look at britain, if you look at france, the same issues the same issues. ok, so if say russia at, at germany in the middle of the night as it did ukraine,

what sort of defense do you think the german armed forces could put up until the native cavalry arrived that we could? and we had the same discussion for many, many decades in the cold war. there were the plans when of our shops, countries were coming west where to stop them at the river, right? that was the issue. so of course we will try everything then to stop, but the 1st word, other countries that would be enrolling there would be somewhere else. and we now strengthening fix the time. we have to support our allies there. and that's what we're doing right now in the baltic. region, that's what we do, of course, in romania and other countries. so we're concentrating on strengthen our eastern flank. good later, i'd like to play you a quick clip of the u. k. defense secretary ben wallace speaking on wednesday or wishing we could be more like sweden, but we part of that is a different cultural with those countries have had construction,

continue sweden records of certain years, i think. and we invigorated it and actually with great success and asserting construction reserve and go hand in hand because everyone's died. so i definitely think with how these i was. and i would like love to have a model like that. so let's talk, colonels pennsburg has had of germany's armed forces reservists, organization. firstly, just jeremy, have enough reservists. no, we have a little bit more than 30 thousands who are doing their duty every year. so $30000.00 is much, much, much. and how much is, how many does do you need 1st, normally we have to talk about the active soldiers or something like $180000.00. and we are not climbing up to a little bit more than 2000. that's our target. i fear we're going down, and so normally the reserve is 3 times more than the active part. so we are far,

far away from that. our target is 100060000 in the territorial defense and 30000 still doing the duty in all parts. the military and so has that mindset that you were you took that has that applied itself yet to to numbers? is there an active policy of trying to recruit? no, no, no. i think what we should really discuss is, what do we need if you are really honest, if we want to really have deterrence, and that's what we doing, it's we want to have the resilience. that's why we need reserve, but we're not just doing it to have the resilience. we have to do it because we want to have to terrance that nobody will attack us. that's a target no war. so that's why you have to be real, real with the tangs real with the soldiers. the soldiers have to be there and not just names in on the file. so in the end, we are far away from

a strong military that has a good deterrents for aggress us, but this can't forget me and thank you for coming in. but this sounds terrible. this fits up, the politicians are saying we have to do more. we have to do better, we have to be better and it sounds from what you're saying like someone is going. yeah. but not yet, not quite, not now. i'm not really happy with this. this is there is just this, this gap. but since february last year, before that, we were totally on a different track, 2011, takes time to turn this whole thing around as an end to discuss maybe mistakes. i was the only a member of the conservative party in the german parliament who voted against stopping conscription. everybody was convinced that we don't need conscription anymore because we are just surrounded by friends. no aggressor could reach us anymore. and everybody asked me, who could be the aggressor? and everybody wanted me to say it's russia could be russia. and i was said,

i don't know who in 102030 years could be the aggressor. but i want to have a military that's strong enough to defend the own country. now, if that would be quite an ask, now politically, wouldn't it? not just of the politicians, but of erases in germany, has grown up in peace and want to put all that behind them. yeah, the ninety's, there was a changing point and we had the cold war time and then 90899090 the changing point and then step by step just being there, going into missions here as a peaceful europe, surrounded by friends. russia was a mom invited to the table at the nato, so in the end there was no threat. so we shrink the military and not just germany did it and, and now we focus that 3rd diving, the capability to defend the own country is the core issue. of the military and we gave it up not just germany. wall gave it up. thank you so much for coming in and

explain to us are clearly at to us colonel co patrick sands book president of the german armed forces reservist organization. thank you, susan. thank you. oh, oh sure, of underline says future relations with the e use biggest trading partner, that's china will depend on how beijing deals with the war in ukraine. the european commission president is having for the chinese capital, where she says the focus will be on frank dialogue. the e u commission head is sitting down a marker before her visit to china. our relations are not black or white, and always fun cannot be either. this is why we need to focus on deal with not the couple and this is part of the reason why i will soon be visiting busy together with president michael. so she, in early march chinese president,

teaching ping began his 3rd term in office for funder line is critical of the extent of she's power and of his goals is communist parties flee a goal is a systemic change of international order with china at its center. yes, seen it with china positions in multi lateral bodies which show its determination to promote an alternative vision of the world. the forging of closer ties between russia and china is part of building this new world order. cheese recent 3 day visit in moscow is evidence of this. beijing hasn't condemned russia's war and ukraine even seeing itself as a mediator. this is from the lions analysis. clear crohn this visit. that china seas putting the weakness as

a way to increase at the leverage over russia. and it is clear that the power balance and that relationship which for most of the last century favorite russia has now reverse. but china is also the use most important trading partner as from the line also mentioned, those ties come with their own dangers. for example, exported goods could also be used for military purposes. ahead of her visit the commission president stress that the e u is very skeptical about china's growing autocracy and influence. let's dive deeper into this river josie maria per kuhn. she's a china analyst at the university of chia here in germany. welcome to the w. m. does the commercial president speeds do you think mark a significant change of tone towards china? well, there is not a real shift in tone, but she was presenting this before. and i think what we see now is that she gets

clear on that and. and that might also be the question why there is no direct response so far. i mean, i remember the last time she spoke about china and strategy, she was called toxic and or toxic words from china daily. and so right now there's not really a response. probably because they don't know what to do out of it before she comes to china and see what actually she brings in. and is there any evidence, verse, or any of this european, or indeed, american finger wagging at china has any sort of effect talking about when is the effect? of course, there is in effect, however, is the fact we won't and of the squeezing together of russia. and china might also be in the fact of this thing or this red line pointing out and threshold. so i'm

not saying that they are totally on sensitive about it, so it's very important to bring out what the you stands for. what are the thresholds, what are the red lines. however, we will probably not see a direct effect. we will see it and only an immediate effect like in later sanderson are. so it's, it's, it strikes me but, but in europe's relations with china, the same as a pattern developing, but european polish usually go to china, but before they leave, they go, i say china must do this in china. stop doing this and shot of us through this, and then they go and just do business. it's almost as though we have to say all this and get it all out there and then we'll just go there and just do business. is i? am i being too cynical? i would say yes, you're too cynical because i'm defending. how are your pin soul here? to say, this is not only a symbolic or something that has to be pointed out. of course, it is

a standard symbolic stand about what are the well use. and sometimes i would give you that it is not only directed to china, but it's also directed to ourselves about the reassurance about this is what we want to stand for. because this is what we think is important. and this is what we bring. then again, back to china, however we all know negotiation work in terms of finding compromises and. ringback how these compromises are actually worked out. we probably won't see because it's behind closed curtains. ok. but wait, wait. europe has a problem though, doesn't it? when it's dealing with china, europe is not one thing. it's 27 countries. as we heard in the report, we have the spanish prime minister already in china. germany's chancellor took up businessmen in november. now usher from the lion appears to be arriving the french coat, tails a to beijing. divide and conquer does seem to be beijing's european policy.

well, you could also see that from the land make such a clear statement, say this is the tone of europe and where we want to head to towards to and, and then other ones are countries can re adjust to their needs. however, i would also say, this divide and conquer is something we should not take over because the most important that the european union speak with one wise or with one agenda, even though it's hard and we are not the same. so this is the biggest difference compared china with the us. we can deal with neighbors and neighbor multilateralism . china can do also. and but the sometimes as a little bit of problems see this as a parent, because i'm looking at the way forward and i'm seeing countries like germany, germany, which to so much business with china. can you see germany allowing

a europe, a strong enough policy that will, that would, that would make the european that would propose european values, but undermine a german exports to china. currently would have a negotiation. first step synchronizes this a little bit, are to deal with what are the european needs, because the european union is not, there's not a body above it, but we are composed by the states. that's a democratic system we have. so that's how we are different from china that can run from top to bottom approach. none the less, it, it makes it harder, but it makes it sometimes also more reliable and also the opportunity to deal differently with china, but still make around about our values. thank you so much jersey very per con, unless from university of trio. thank you. and that is the day the compensation

continues online on twitter, w news, or you can probably have a good guy with to the point. strong opinion, clear positions, international perspective resident got a announcement that he plans to station tactical nuclear weapons and beta. those has concerns about the father escalation. this is the 1st time since 1919 that

russia was deployed outside of the phone. we'll be discussing this shortly on to the point with d. w. conflicts with tim sebastian as the fighting growing zone in ukraine. spare a thought for some of the countries on the edge of the wars are stable of a these days that small, diverse, 4 minutes for me to profess group government struggling to come back. hybrid tags from russia and supporters just come on with the state. even the hope to survive conflict with 60 minutes on d w with a ah,

i currently more people than a worldwide in search of a better life. but it was in pod went back a lot of money. that's what i believe with a lender method. did a little that i find out about bailey's story. info, migraines, reliable news for migrant. wherever they may be. ah, president vladimir puddings announcement that he plans to station tactical nuclear weapons and bella rules has raised concerns about father escalation. this is the 1st time since in 1990 is that russia will deploy arms outside of its borders. russian forces have had little success in that aggressive campaign.