Azan Awais top-scored for Pakistan with 46 runs, while Saud Shakeel made 16.
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The campaign aims to reclaim government land and properties from illegal occupation.
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two officials discussed matters of mutual interest during the meeting, according to an official statement.
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Iftikhar Gilani said Pakistan is incomplete without Kashmir and Kashmir is also incomplete without Pakistan.
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An IMF team is expected to visit Pakistan in September for the fourth review of the Extended Fund Facility,
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For Pakistan, Mohammad Abbas was the standout bowler, taking four wickets.
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Mustafa Kamal takes responsibility for the PIMS tragedy as Parliament moves to investigate the deaths and hold those responsible accountable.
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MUZAFFARABAD: Iftikhar Gilani, candidate of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), was elected as the 17th prime minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Friday after securing 30 votes in the legislative assembly. Gilani defeated Sardar Mukhtar Khan of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), who garnered 14 votes. First elected to the AJK Legislative Assembly ... Read more
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Apparently, African wild dogs enjoy knocking around balls of elephant dung like a football. It’s this playfulness that has endeared them to researchers—but, as Helen Sullivan points out, they have their work cut out for them trying to protect this persecuted big predator. Sullivan follows conservationists in southern Africa who are carefully managing tiny, isolated populations and attempting to introduce genetic diversity. The story of the three sisters who are flown over from Mozambique to be introduced to Waterberg—a South African municipality three hours from Johannesburg—is heart-wrenching. Yet in such a harsh environment, individual tragedies have to be endured while staying focused on the bigger picture: the fragile recovery of the species as a whole.
As we help Greyling and Hlako lift a crate off the pickup, a dusty paw flops out of one corner, and I think of something my uncle says: “You can smell the world in a dog’s paw.” Mooney and I back away, watching from inside a container as Hlako moves the car so that the overheating dog is in the shade. Though it is late afternoon, the temperature is still around 90 degrees.
Hlako and Greyling release the dogs one at a time, opening the crate and waiting until a dog walks, then trots, out. The first is less sure on her feet, the second seems almost normal, until Mooney points out that she would have run much faster from the crate and people had she not still been a bit dozy. The sisters stand together in a grassy area, point their noses in the air, move their satellite-dish ears and lie down under a thorn tree; it has been a long day.
Actor is set to present an award at The Fact Music Awards after about 17 months away from the domestic spotlight.
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The World Oil Outlook is published annually by the OPEC Secretariat in Vienna and is intended to inform policymakers, industry stakeholders and market analysts on long-term energy trends.
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EU Reporter journalist Derya Soysal was among the members of the press given direct access to President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in Astana after he cast his vote in Kazakhstan’s first elections to the newly established Kurultai — an opportunity that offered a rare first-hand insight into the President’s thinking on political reform, government, youth, artificial intelligence and the country’s future direction.
For a journalist covering the rapidly changing political landscape of Central Asia, there are moments when being in the room matters.
For EU Reporter journalist Derya Soysal (pictured with President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev) Kazakhstan’s historic Kurultai election provided precisely such an opportunity.
After President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev cast his vote in the country’s first election to the newly established Kurultai, Soysal was among the journalists with privileged access to the President during the press briefing that followed.
It gave EU Reporter a first-hand opportunity to hear Tokayev address some of the most important questions facing Kazakhstan as the country enters a new political chapter.
The exchanges went far beyond election day itself.
Questions ranged from the consequences of constitutional reform and the creation of the Vice Presidency to the future composition of the government, the role of younger politicians and the increasingly important place of artificial intelligence in Kazakhstan’s economic and social development.
The result was a revealing picture of how Tokayev sees the next phase of his country’s transformation.
Tokayev himself described the election as a historic milestone and the beginning of a new stage in Kazakhstan’s development.
The establishment of the Kurultai forms part of a much broader restructuring of the country’s political institutions.
During the briefing, the President was questioned about what ordinary citizens should expect from the constitutional reforms, how the newly created Vice Presidency would operate and what role the Kazakhstan People’s Council would play.
Tokayev portrayed the changes as essential components of a renewed political system.
He stressed the importance of the Vice Presidency as an institution capable of supporting effective governance during difficult periods, while describing the Kazakhstan People’s Council as a mechanism intended to strengthen public participation and national cohesion.
But the President’s vision was not restricted to political architecture.
He also pointed to ambitious infrastructure and development programmes encompassing healthcare facilities, rehabilitation centres, urban modernisation and environmental projects.
Among the most politically sensitive questions put to Tokayev concerned his own future.
Could he stand again for President?
Following recent constitutional developments concerning his eligibility for a future presidential election, journalists pressed Tokayev on whether he intended to seek another term.
His response was deliberately cautious.
While acknowledging that the legal possibility exists, Tokayev rejected speculation about a future campaign as premature.
Instead, he argued that Kazakhstan should be concentrating on the immediate challenges of modernisation, economic growth, social development and stability in an increasingly unpredictable international environment.
It was a response that sought to move attention away from political succession and back towards the governing agenda.
Soysal’s access to the presidential briefing also provided an opportunity to hear Tokayev set out his expectations of the people who will serve in the new political institutions.
Asked what qualities Kurultai deputies should possess, the President emphasised responsibility and accountability.
Members, he said, should be judged by the quality of the legislation they adopt, whether they fulfil promises made to voters and whether the programmes they pursue genuinely contribute to Kazakhstan’s development.
A recurring theme throughout the briefing was generational change.
Tokayev again argued that Kazakhstan needs younger people to play a greater role in public life.
New faces and new thinking, he suggested, will be essential if the country is to maintain momentum in the years ahead.
The creation of the Kurultai also has consequences for the government.
Journalists therefore questioned Tokayev about the future administration and whether Kazakhstan should expect major personnel changes.
The President praised the work of the existing government but confirmed that changes would come.
At the same time, he cautioned against replacing officials simply to create the appearance of political renewal.
For Tokayev, modernisation appears to mean continuous institutional renewal rather than political theatre: bringing in new energy and expertise where necessary while retaining effective administration.
Another important exchange concerned political competition.
Asked whether the campaign had demonstrated genuine competition, Tokayev pointed to televised debates, public engagement and particularly strong interest among younger voters.
He characterised the electoral process as another milestone in Kazakhstan’s continuing political modernisation and said the campaign had brought new political voices and new ideas into public debate.
For an international audience, however, the question of political pluralism remains one of the key issues against which Kazakhstan’s reforms will ultimately be judged.
The significance of the new institutions will therefore depend not only upon their constitutional design, but on how independently and effectively they operate in practice.
Young people repeatedly returned to the centre of the discussion.
With a significant number of younger candidates participating in the electoral process, Tokayev was asked whether this generation could genuinely transform the country’s political system.
His answer was notable for combining optimism with a measure of realism.
He acknowledged that not every young official promoted into senior positions in recent years had been successful.
Nevertheless, Tokayev insisted that Kazakhstan must continue putting its confidence in younger generations.
For a country with a comparatively young population, he suggested, long-term success will depend heavily upon the responsibility, engagement and leadership of its youth.
Some of the most revealing exchanges witnessed by Soysal moved beyond constitutions and elections.
Tokayev was questioned about his repeated calls for greater civic responsibility, discipline, respect and public ethics.
The President argued that national modernisation cannot be measured solely in economic growth rates or institutional reforms.
It also requires changes in behaviour and public culture.
He connected those ideas with the Taza Kazakhstan initiative, explaining that cleanliness should be understood both literally and symbolically — encompassing respect for public spaces but also ideas of dignity, moral responsibility and civic consciousness.
Perhaps the most forward-looking discussion concerned Kazakhstan’s digital ambitions.
Artificial intelligence has become a central part of Tokayev’s political and economic agenda.
Asked to assess progress in digitalisation, the President argued that Kazakhstan had already completed an important first stage in constructing a digital state by making electronic public services widely accessible.
Citizens can now carry out administrative tasks from home that once required lengthy bureaucratic procedures.
But Tokayev made clear that he regards this as only the beginning.
The next challenge, he said, is to move artificial intelligence and digital technology beyond conferences, presentations and policy documents and turn them into instruments that deliver practical economic benefits.
He highlighted entrepreneurs, farmers and regional communities as groups that should increasingly be able to use technology to improve productivity and generate income.
His message was strikingly simple: the smartphone should no longer be regarded merely as an entertainment device but as an instrument of economic opportunity.
For EU Reporter, Soysal’s participation in the presidential briefing provided something increasingly valuable in international reporting: direct access to the political decision-maker at the centre of the story.
Rather than interpreting Tokayev’s position through official statements alone, she was able to witness at first hand how the President responded when confronted with questions about political succession, institutional change, government performance and the expectations of Kazakhstan’s younger generation.
Soysal’s access is particularly significant at a moment when Kazakhstan is seeking to redefine both its domestic political institutions and its place internationally.
The country occupies an increasingly important strategic position between Europe and Asia, while its economic, energy and diplomatic relationships with the European Union continue to develop.
Understanding the direction Kazakhstan takes therefore matters well beyond its own borders.
What emerged from the presidential exchange in Astana was not simply a discussion about one election.
It was a debate about what kind of Kazakhstan should emerge from the reforms now under way.
How much influence will the new institutions exercise?
Will younger politicians genuinely reshape public life?
Can artificial intelligence translate into economic opportunity outside Kazakhstan’s major cities?
And how far will political modernisation alter the relationship between the state and its citizens?
Those questions will not be answered by one election or one presidential press briefing.
But Derya Soysal’s privileged position inside that briefing gave EU Reporter readers a valuable first-hand view of how Kazakhstan’s President himself answers them.
As the first Kurultai begins its work, the importance of the election may ultimately be judged not by the symbolism of its creation, but by what Kazakhstan’s new political institutions actually deliver.
For the moment, however, one thing is clear: the country has entered a new phase, and the political conversation about what comes next has already begun.
Derya Soysal is an EU Reporter journalist covering European and international affairs. She attended President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s press briefing in Astana following his vote in Kazakhstan’s first Kurultai elections.
Kazakhstan is moving rapidly to position artificial intelligence at the center of its economic modernization strategy, investing in computing infrastructure, skills, startups and Kazakh-language technologies as governments worldwide compete for a place in the emerging AI economy, writes Assel Satubaldina.
Kazakhstan has an increasingly ambitious AI agenda. The government has made AI part of its broader economic modernization strategy, betting that it can improve public services, attract investment and help the country generate more value beyond its traditional reliance on raw materials. It has been investing heavily in computing infrastructure, training, startup ecosystems, and Kazakh-language models. At the 38th plenary session of the Foreign Investors’ Council in July, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev explicitly called the integration of AI into state investment policy a “critically important priority”.
The government has adopted a Digital Code and a law on artificial intelligence, launched the Digital Qazaqstan strategy, established a Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development, and designated 2026 as the Year of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development. This push comes at a time as AI is becoming both a major global industry and an increasingly important source of economic and strategic power. UN Trade and Development estimates the global AI market will rise from $189 billion in 2023 to $4.8 trillion by 2033. This is a 25-fold increase in just a decade.
Globally, AI push is concentrated among a handful of countries. U.S. private AI investment alone reached nearly $286 billion in 2025, more than 23 times the level in China, according to Stanford University’s 2026 AI Index. Global corporate AI investment more than doubled in 2025, while private companies produced more than 90% of the year’s notable AI models. For emerging economies, the concentration of AI infrastructure in a small number of countries can make this race appear expensive, not to mention that training large language models requires massive quantities of computing power, electricity, connectivity and capital. Kazakhstan is unlikely to compete with the United States or China at the most capital-intensive layer of the AI industry nor does it need to. Experts say its opportunity lies in combining global AI technologies with domestic expertise, while building its own capabilities in areas where dependence creates economic or strategic vulnerabilities.
Strong foundation
The country’s AI push builds on years of its experience of deploying digital technologies at a scale. Advanced technologies are increasingly embedded in government services and banking. “Right now, especially in the artificial intelligence applications in fintech, Kazakhstan is one of the most progressive countries in the world,” Huseyin Atakan Varol, dean of the School of Computing and Artificial Intelligence and director of the Institute of Smart Systems and Artificial Intelligence at Nazarbayev University, told The Astana Times. He pointed to technologies including palm-recognition authentication and AI-powered banking assistants as examples of how quickly digital tools have entered everyday life. International indicators tell a similar story but also expose an important weakness.
Kazakhstan ranks 10th globally for online government services, according to figures from the World Intellectual Property Organization. Yet it ranks 115th for university-industry collaboration and 112th for venture-capital deal activity relative to the size of its economy. Dr. Varol said Kazakhstan still allocates a relatively small share of its economy to research and development, with the government providing most of that funding. While spending on science has increased in recent years, spending on research and development does not reach 1%. “Nearly all of this allocation comes from the state, very little from the private companies,” he said. “So basically, industry, academia, government interaction, the triple helix structure is not yet fully working in Kazakhstan.”
That may prove to be one of the important constraints on Kazakhstan’s AI ambitions. While the government can establish institutions, purchase computing infrastructure and train specialistics, building a durable innovation economy requires more. Alem.AI center in Astana is intended to help close that gap by connecting education, research, startups and companies. “We have some real and simple goals. The first one is to build a community of professionals, who not just use but understand what AI actually is. It means that we train different categories,” Alyona Slavkina, head of the Alem.AI Development Office, told The Astana Times.
The community is supposed to include schoolchildren, students, working professionals, researchers and entrepreneurs. The idea is to create a pathway from first exposure to AI to education, research and eventually the development of commercial products. The challenge, however, is that AI is evolving faster than conventional education systems. Olzhas Urazalin, head of Tomorrow School, said technologies and development tools can change within months, while formal academic programs often require years to adapt. “Many graduates have strong theoretical knowledge, but very limited experience working with modern AI tools, real data sets, and product development.
\This indeed creates a gap between learning and creation. Young specialists often learn how to use existing AI solutions, but they rarely get the opportunity to understand how these systems are built, or how to develop new ones,” Urazalin said. Tomorrow School is built around an alternative model. Students learn primarily through projects rather than conventional lectures and work on real problems brought into the curriculum by businesses. The program is free, runs for 18 months and is open to applicants without traditional technology backgrounds. “In my opinion, Kazakhstan must focus on developing, first of all, creators, not only consumers of AI technology,” he said, highlighting talent, infrastructure, and international collaboration as priorities.
Development pathways
Dr. Varol describes two broad pathways for technological development. One is indigenous development, which requires substantial investment, time and a long-term commitment. The other is what he calls “technological piggybacking,” adopting technologies already developed elsewhere. For Kazakhstan, Varol said that generative AI requires elements of both approaches. “We have been also debating and discussing a lot about what is the best strategy for Kazakhstan, especially in the development of generative AI technologies. Our internal deliberations always pointed out that we must develop these technologies indigenously as well,” he said.
Varol also stressed that developing domestic capabilities is not only about owning a model, but also about creating a pool of specialists with expertise who can later move into startups, established companies and new commercial products. Recent events also demonstrated that access to foreign technologies can become subject to government restrictions. In June, the US government temporarily imposed export controls barring foreign nationals from accessing Anthropic’s Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models, including foreign-national employees of Anthropic itself. “Creators of these technologies can stop your access to these technologies and this creates a very big dependence risk,” said Dr. Varol.
Technological sovereignty, however, should not be confused with technological self-sufficiency. Mohamed Eissa, chief investment officer at the International Finance Corporation, emphasized that this explains why emerging markets are unlikely to compete directly at that layer of the industry. “You are not seeing LLMs [large language models] being developed in emerging markets because you need compute, connectivity, power,” Eissa said. “Those things are big infrastructure gaps in emerging markets.” But he draws an important distinction between building AI infrastructure and using AI.
He pointed to a rapidly growing AI company in content creation that originated from Kazakhstan as an example. “But using AI in emerging markets, you don’t need to build that to be able to use it. That is an opportunity in emerging markets: finding innovative people who have really good ICT skills, have focused on a business problem and now have the tools to compete with Silicon Valley,” he said during The Development Podcast on the World Bank Group YouTube channel.
That may be one of the most important opportunities for Kazakhstan. According to him, in emerging markets, the much larger opportunity may be the application of AI to businesses that already exist. Likewise, in Kazakhstan, potential economic impact of AI should not be measured only by how many programmers, AI startups or research laboratories the nation generates, but rather by whether this technology raises productivity gains across the wider economy.
Existing strengths
Dr. Varol said some of the applications of AI lie in sectors where the country already has an expertise. Mining, energy and logistics are among them. “Kazakhstan is one of the richest countries with respect to mining and natural resources, but most of these natural resources are exported with a small amount of added value to other countries,” he said. Using AI and digital technologies in those industries, he noted, could allow Kazakhstan to generate more value from resources before they leave the country. Where dependence matters There are areas, however, where Kazakhstan has stronger reasons to maintain domestic capabilities. Dr. Varol said questions about where information is processed and stored become significantly more consequential when AI systems are used by companies or public institutions.
“In general, I believe this is also very important with respect to the sovereignty aspects of a country,” he added. Language presents a different form of dependence. Global AI systems are trained on enormous quantities of data, but languages are represented very unevenly in those datasets. Dr. Varol said approximately half of publicly accessible internet content is in English, compared with only around 0.03% in Kazakh. That means developing Kazakh-language AI starts long before a model is trained. ISSAI, which was founded in 2019, has developed the country’s first LLM in 2024. Drawing on the institute’s experience, Dr. Varol explained that researchers first need to collect texts and other data, remove poor-quality material, organize the information and convert it into formats suitable for machine learning. Researchers faced another problem once a model has been trained on how to determine whether it actually understands the language. “Because the internationally accepted method for doing this is called model benchmarking and all model benchmarks are in English language or Chinese language, but none were in Kazakh language. Basically, we also have created a suite of benchmarking data sets,” he said.
The development of Kazakhstan’s LLM illustrates another benefit of indigenous AI development. The process itself creates capabilities. The team had to recruit and train specialists while learning to operate multi-node AI computing infrastructure, expertise that had not previously been used at that scale. The significance of the project therefore extends beyond the model it produced. It helped build a domestic pool of engineers with experience in the infrastructure and workflows required for advanced AI development. Kazakhstan’s AI strategy therefore does not require choosing between complete technological independence and reliance on global platforms. The more realistic task is to determine which capabilities the country needs to control, which technologies it can efficiently import and where AI can create the greatest economic value.
Talks focus on agriculture, water resources, food security and investment.
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The IPO, which represents a 15% stake in the company valued at approximately Rs1.86 billion, will see public subscription open September 3-4, 2026.
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KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan’s consolidated profit fell nearly 20% to Rs 1.999 trillion for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2026, as a sharp decline in interest and markup earnings outweighed a turnaround in exchange-related gains, according to the central bank’s consolidated financial statements approved Thursday. The central bank reported profit after tax ... Read more
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“The Strait of Hormuz cannot be separated from the broader regional conflict,” Rezaei said.
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Field marshal meets multinational Harvard Business School delegation to discuss regional security, global challenges and Pakistan’s development potential.
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Based on the objectives outlined by the head of state, schools must simultaneously deliver quality education, foster self-confident individuals, and prepare young people for the new opportunities of the digital economy.
Among the top priorities, the President identified the continued building of high-quality schools in all regions, particularly in areas still facing a shortage of school places.
"This is a pressing task of national importance. From next year, it is necessary to begin this work without any delays. Next year, we must ensure rapid construction," he instructed.
President Tokayev also addressed the numerous changes taking place in the education system.
"We must stop empty, content-free reforms done for the sake of reforms. In other words, reforms and changes are certainly indispensable, but they should not drain all the strength and stress out of teachers. Before implementing each reform – and this applies especially to education – we must conduct a comprehensive analysis and thoroughly verify it is effective," Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said.
The President also called for relieving teachers of excessive paperwork, meddlesome certification procedures, and unrelated workloads.
"Reports keep coming in about teachers being pulled into repair work and various public events that have nothing to do with the learning process. We agreed long ago that this is unacceptable. The Ministry of Enlightenment and regional akimats must focus on improving the legal and regulatory framework, building an effective learning process, and carefully analyzing curricula," he noted.
A significant portion of the Head of State's speech was dedicated to educating children and youth. In his view, the education system must foster confident individuals capable of overcoming challenges.
"It is the duty of teachers to nurture new generations of optimists – not those consumed by sorrow, insecure, and spreading seeds of depression. We are a nation of winners, ready to overcome all difficulties and threats, looking confidently only forward, believing in a bright future – not searching for the causes of tragedies, defeats, failures, or psychological complexes in our historical past or in other states and peoples," President Tokayev emphasized.
The President also pointed to the need to revise educational materials, which, he said, contain unreliable facts and mythologized heroes.
"Raising children in a spirit of patriotism by spreading false, fabricated information will inevitably undermine the moral backbone of our people. I have said many times that we must abandon the image and character of an eternally grieving nation.
Sorrow is a bad companion for our youth. I can tell you that for sure. Our young people must understand their people's history correctly and look to the future with hope and confidence," Kassym-Jomart Tokayev underscored.
The Government is entrusted with fast-tracking legislation banning under-16s from social media (a bill already submitted to Parliament in June) and to step up content filtering.
The President stressed that relying solely on parental responsibility is not enough, and called for scaling up mandatory children's SIM cards as a tool for "informational immunity."
Tokayev also announced that in his upcoming State of the Nation Address, he will set the goal of involving young people, including those in rural areas, in using digital tools and AI to generate income.
"We are to transition from a digital state to a digital people's economy. In other words, artificial intelligence and its tools are not fun toys – they are means of making a living. That is how it should be. In higher education, an inter-university standard already exists that addresses the ethical, legal, and organizational aspects of AI use. The Government must introduce a similar standard in secondary and vocational education," the President instructed.
The President's core message is that education is not just a sector — it is a tool for shaping a modern individual: confident, not dwelling on past grievances, capable of earning income through digital technology, and protected by the state.
Cette fois nous y sommes : l'Allemagne est une puissance occidentale comme les autres. Et sa classe dirigeante, débarrassée des scrupules historiques qui l'empêchaient d'affirmer sa domination sur l'Europe autrement que par l'austérité budgétaire et l'excédent commercial, se sent à nouveau investie d'une ambition proprement nationale : construire « l'armée la plus puissante d'Europe sur le plan conventionnel ». Une priorité claironnée par M. Friedrich Merz dès son premier discours au Bundestag en tant que chancelier (14 mai 2025). Cette Bundeswehr « prête à la guerre », selon la formule fétiche du ministre de la défense Boris Pistorius, servira un triple objectif économique, militaire et stratégique : relancer un appareil industriel flageolant ; garantir aux franges septentrionales et orientales de l'Europe une protection contre la Russie ; et, en accord avec Washington, déléguer à l'Allemagne la direction européenne de l'Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord (OTAN).
« Nous ne sommes pas en guerre, mais nous ne sommes plus non plus en paix (1) », résume M. Merz. Pour preuve : en 2025, ses 114 milliards d'euros d'engagements de défense classaient l'Allemagne au quatrième rang mondial en matière de dépenses militaires. Après les États-Unis (954 milliards), la Chine (336 milliards) et la Russie (190 milliards). S'appuyant sur des ressources financières inégalées sur le continent, Berlin dépensera plus en armement d'ici à la fin de la décennie que Londres et Paris ensemble. Cette combinaison de suprématie économique et militaire conventionnelle déstabilise l'architecture de sécurité européenne édifiée à la fin de la guerre froide, et révèle un déséquilibre que ni le paravent de l'intégration européenne ni la fable du « couple franco-allemand » ne parviennent plus à masquer. Certes, contrainte par ses engagements internationaux, l'Allemagne dépend toujours pour sa dissuasion stratégique des capacités nucléaires américaines et, si le partenariat engagé par M. Emmanuel Macron porte ses fruits, françaises. Mais la page de la République fédérale cantonnée au rôle de « puissance civile », sans autonomie militaire, se tourne.
« Dans une ère où domine à nouveau la politique des grandes puissances, a expliqué le chef du gouvernement, l'Allemagne doit tracer sa propre voie (2). » Au printemps dernier, l'historienne Liana Fix a indisposé la chancellerie en détaillant les « dangers de la puissance allemande » : le retour des rivalités et des divisions continentales, notamment avec la France et la Pologne ; le risque que l'extrême droite, en tête dans les sondages, gouverne un jour un pays désormais surarmé (3). Dès à présent, le nationalisme industriel décomplexé dans le secteur de la défense (lire « Rheinmetall en roue libre »), les accords européens de libre-échange avec le Marché commun du Sud (Mercosur) et l'Inde dictés par les intérêts allemands, la capitulation douanière, en juillet 2025, de Mme Ursula von der Leyen face aux États-Unis, conforme aux souhaits de Berlin, exaspèrent le voisin français — qui s'y plie néanmoins.
Il aura fallu pour ouvrir ce nouveau chapitre du souverainisme allemand un chancelier banquier d'affaires moins empreint que ses prédécesseurs de cette retenue contrite propre à la culture diplomatique d'après-guerre. Et confronté à une situation hors du commun. Car le « changement d'époque » annoncé par M. Olaf Scholz lors de l'invasion russe en Ukraine n'a réellement pris corps que trois ans plus tard, début 2025, face à la convergence de trois difficultés. En premier lieu, la menace de récession industrielle déclenchée par la concurrence chinoise, la hausse des prix de l'énergie et les tarifs douaniers décidés par le président américain Donald Trump. Ensuite, le spectre d'une escalade face à la Russie, compte tenu de l'engagement croissant de Berlin aux côtés de l'Ukraine. Comme en France et au Royaume-Uni, le soutien financier et militaire à Kiev tient lieu de religion séculière aux élites. À une population profondément marquée par le pacifisme, surtout dans l'est du pays, le Service fédéral de renseignement (BND) dirigé par l'ancien ambassadeur d'Allemagne en Ukraine instille la peur : « La frontière entre la paix et la guerre s'estompe » ; la situation « peut à tout moment dégénérer en confrontation violente » (4). Enfin, l'angoisse d'un désengagement américain. Le 14 février 2025, lors de la 61e conférence de Munich sur la sécurité, cette perspective a frappé de stupeur les cercles dirigeants allemands qui écoutaient le vice-président américain James David (« J. D. ») Vance vilipender le « modèle » européen, au point que l'organisateur de l'événement a fondu en larmes. Des débuts chaotiques du second mandat de M. Trump, les élites rhénanes ont tiré la conviction qu'il faudrait à l'avenir moins dépendre des humeurs de la Maison Blanche, se doter de moyens propres pour soutenir l'Ukraine, mais demeurer quoi qu'il en coûte l'interlocuteur privilégié de Washington en Europe. Une autonomisation de la vassalité, en somme, que symbolise la construction d'une Bundeswehr à la fois puissante et garante des intérêts américains sur le Vieux Continent.
Récession, Russie, repli américain : le gouvernement parie qu'une même solution, le grand réarmement, conjurera ces trois menaces.
L'épiphanie martiale de Berlin s'accompagne d'un autre chambardement : l'écart de plus en plus assumé avec le droit international, dont le respect absolu devait conditionner la politique étrangère allemande. Un an après le discours de M. Vance à Munich, MM. Pistorius, Johann Wadephul et Markus Söder, respectivement ministre de la défense, ministre des affaires étrangères et ministre président de Bavière, lançaient le tonnerre d'applaudissements réservé au secrétaire d'État américain invité à son tour à Munich : une ovation contre les institutions internationales puisque M. Marco Rubio venait à la fois de calomnier l'Organisation des Nations unies (ONU), de glorifier le « Conseil de la paix » inventé (et présidé) par M. Trump et d'entériner la transformation de Gaza en colonie dudit conseil. Reçu à la Maison Blanche trois jours après l'agression israélo-américaine contre l'Iran (dont il n'avait pas été prévenu), M. Merz cautionnait ce viol de la Charte de l'ONU ; son ministre des affaires étrangères, M. Wadephul, préciserait à propos de Téhéran qu'« un tel régime ne peut guère se prévaloir du droit international (5) ».
Berlin, arbitre mondial de la vertu ? Les dirigeants du pays estiment avoir conquis cette aptitude morale particulière au terme de leur long « travail de mémoire », comme si l'unicité du crime commis rendait exceptionnel le peuple qui en aurait surmonté la culpabilité (6). Soixante-dix ans après la Nuit de cristal (novembre 1938), Mme Angela Merkel décrétait soudain que « la sécurité d'Israël [faisait] partie de la raison d'État de l'Allemagne » et institutionnalisait le soutien inconditionnel apporté à l'un des pays ayant le plus fréquemment enfreint les résolutions de l'ONU. Depuis le 7 octobre 2023, Berlin a armé les crimes contre l'humanité perpétrés par Tel-Aviv, rejeté des décisions de la Cour internationale de justice, coupé les aides au développement versées aux pays qui soutiennent la Palestine, et même justifié le bombardement d'écoles et d'hôpitaux gazaouis par la voix de son ex- ministre (écologiste) des affaires étrangères Annalena Baerbock.
Ironie de l'histoire, cette entorse aux principes de la Loi fondamentale se justifie au nom d'une identité nationale reconstruite dans les années 1990 autour de la mémoire du génocide. Une certitude dominait alors, exprimée par le chancelier Helmut Kohl dans son adresse aux gouvernements du monde prononcée le 3 octobre 1990, jour de la réunion des deux Allemagnes : « À l'avenir, seule la paix émanera du sol allemand. » Cette réunification, la première ministre britannique Margaret Thatcher s'y opposait ; François Mitterrand l'avait jugée en 1979 « ni souhaitable ni possible ». À leurs yeux, la réapparition d'une telle puissance économique, politique et démographique au cœur de l'Europe ne pourrait que bouleverser les équilibres stratégiques. La réunification achevée, l'ancien conseiller américain à la sécurité nationale Zbigniew Brzeziński estimait que « l'Allemagne est désormais capable de faire valoir sa propre vision pour l'avenir de l'Europe (7) ». Celle, inspirée par Washington, d'un élargissement de la Communauté européenne et de l'OTAN aux pays de l'ex-bloc de l'Est, atlantistes pour la plupart.
Très vite, l'Allemagne va se réconcilier avec la Pologne et militer pour l'adhésion à l'Union européenne des États de la Mitteleuropa, qu'elle transforme en base de sous-traitance pour Volkswagen et DaimlerChrysler. Dès le milieu des années 1990, la sphère d'intérêts et d'influence allemande s'étend des pays baltes à la Croatie et de la France à l'Ukraine. Nouveau barycentre européen, Berlin marginalise peu à peu Paris. « L'intérêt des États-Unis consiste à exploiter la position dominante de l'Allemagne dans l'Europe atlantiste », relève alors Brzeziński. Ce projet, qui s'oppose frontalement à celui de Paris d'une plus grande autonomie européenne vis-à-vis des États-Unis, triomphe trente ans plus tard…
Sitôt la Bundeswehr reconstruite, l'Allemagne, qui héberge déjà le commandement des forces américaines en Europe, sera prête à prendre le relais de son tuteur pour endiguer la Russie, voire la combattre. Cette guerre qui vient forme la colonne vertébrale de la stratégie de sécurité nationale publiée en juin 2023. Le général Carsten Breuer, chef d'état-major de l'armée allemande (son prédécesseur a été limogé en 2023 pour avoir douté de la victoire de l'Ukraine), estime qu'il incombe à l'Allemagne de fournir le « liant stratégique » entre les États baltes, ceux d'Europe centrale et orientale, ainsi que ceux de l'Ouest et du Sud (8) : rien de moins que le rôle de pivot militaire du Vieux Continent. Depuis l'année dernière, la Bundeswehr stationne sa Panzerbrigade 45 en Lituanie ; en juin, Berlin et Varsovie ont signé un nouvel accord bilatéral de défense.
Mais la charnière allemande sera solidement enchâssée à un cadre transatlantique : candidat à la présidence du Comité militaire de l'OTAN, le général Breuer pourrait prendre en septembre prochain la tête de la plus haute instance militaire de l'Alliance atlantique (9). Il y a soixante-douze ans, la France rejetait la Communauté européenne de défense, un projet d'armée continentale sous tutelle américaine destiné à camoufler un modeste réarmement allemand moins de dix ans après la chute du IIIe Reich. Le cauchemar du général de Gaulle est à nouveau sur les rails, piloté cette fois par Berlin.
(1) « Merz : “Wir sind nicht mehr im Frieden” », Die Zeit, 29 septembre 2025.
(2) Friedrich Merz, « How to avert the tragedy of great-power politics », site de Foreign Affairs, 13 février 2026.
(3) Liana Fix, « Europe's next hegemon. The perils of German power », Foreign Affairs, vol. 105, n° 2, New York, mars-avril 2026.
(4) Audience publique de Martin Jäger devant le conseil de contrôle parlementaire (PKGr) du Bundestag, 13 octobre 2025.
(5) Johann Wadephul interviewé le 15 mars 2026 dans l'émission Bericht aus Berlin de l'ARD.
(6) Jan Werner Müller, Another Country. German Intellectuals, Unification and National Identity, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2000.
(7) Zbigniew Brzeziński, Le Grand Échiquier. L'Amérique et le reste du monde, Bayard, Paris, 1997.
(8) The Wall Street Journal, New York, 11 août 2026.
(9) Lire « Comment ça marche ? Les structures de fonctionnement de l'OTAN » (infographie de Cécile Marin), Manière de voir, no 183, juin-juillet 2022.
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