Military goals

US Air Force General Philip Breedlove is the current head of the US European Command as well as the Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO Allied Command Operations. He tells DW about NATO partner countries' efforts in Syria and shares his views of how the German military has conducted operations in Afghanistan.

DW: Germany's ministers for defense and foreign affairs have clearly said Germany wants to play a bigger role internationally. What is your response to that?

Philip Breedlove: I am very happy to hear what happened at the conference. I believe Germany remains a major leader in our alliance, and can be even more of one, and we look forward to this.

There is some skepticism that this will be more than words on the part of German politicians. What kind of role could you foresee Germany taking?

I have a different read on the situation. I see a strong Germany in the north of Afghanistan. I have visited Mazar-i-Sharif, I have seen the leadership there and what they have done in the city and the northern area of Afghanistan. I think the German forces have acquitted themselves extremely well in Afghanistan and shown themselves to be a very positive, very capable, very strong partner.

As to changes now, I'll leave that to the new defense minister, who impresses me, and the German leadership to work that out.

Switching to the crisis in Ukraine: From what we hear about the situation there, are you worried about a potential military escalation?

Yes, we are worried about the situation in Ukraine. I just returned from a visit to some of their neighbors and we are all watching this with great concern. We all have the same hope - that this will resolve peacefully and that the people of Ukraine will be able to make the choices that they want to make.

As far as military intervention goes, the military has shown great restraint and has shown great responsibility to this point. I spoke to their chief of defense and it is his absolute intention that the military not enter into this. It is our continued hope that we will find a path forward that does not require such drastic measures.

Would NATO be prepared to act if the situation there gets out of hand and there is military involvement?

That's a political discussion that a military commander would be absolutely unable to comment on. I think NATO sees a great partner in Ukraine. It has been a part of exercises and has deployed with us. We see a country that we want to continue to deal with in the future as a partner.

The situation in Syria is also unresolved, as nothing new came from the Geneva conference. What is your military reading of the situation and do you see a potential role for NATO to be engaged there?

Right now, we are engaged in the area by way of protecting an ally. Germany and two other NATO nations have provided Patriot missile batteries to protect our ally Turkey and will remain focused on that defense. Several NATO nations are bilaterally involved. Partners are bringing chemicals from Latakia to a port in Italy for shipment to a US vessel to remove chemicals.

We have NATO partners absolutely involved in this ongoing operation. We will remain focused on enabling that. In my US hat, we will be in command of the part of the operation that takes the chemicals out and disposes of them. We'll focus on doing that safely and effectively.

Beyond that NATO takes no role in what is going on on the ground in Syria.

Can you elaborate on or confirm Russia's alleged violation of the missile treaty? And if this really occurred, why hasn't the United States done anything earlier?

I have about the same information you do on this revelation. My position is that responsible nations adhere to their treaties. We will have to look at how this developed and if this is in fact an INF buster [Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty - eds.] then we will need to move to policy and other decisions to see our way forward. I am sure this will be a great concern for our NATO allies and nations.