Von der Leyen told Germany's Funke newspaper concern that "we Europeans must get a firmer grip on our own security" in the wake of Britain's "Brexit" referendum and the US election of President Donald Trump.

Her remarks to the Ruhr District multimedia outlet based in Essen coincided with a public "open barrack" day at 16 Bundeswehr facilities as Germany's armed forces seek to recover from several scandals.

Visiting the Bundeswehr's large tank training center near Detmold - the Rommel Barracks named after the late Hitler-era Africa corps general - von der Leyen said German soldiers needed more "sustained" funding and more public support.

"Warm words are not sufficient," said von der Leyen - a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU party.

She added that more modern equipment was "urgently" needed in greater quantity for deployments abroad in the face of terrorism.

Lengthy stay in Afghanistan

Earlier, she had told the Funke group that the Bundeswehr's presence in Afghanistan - begun in 2001 but currently reduced to 940 troops in training and advisory roles - would probably continue for years.

"The Bundeswehr has been stationed for almost 20 years in Kosovo alone," she said, adding that another focus of French-German cooperation based on an EU defense fund could be "efforts to stabilize the Sahel region."

The new defense fund - launched last Wednesday by the European Commission and priced initially at 500 million euros ($560 million) from 2019 - aims to boost synergies in the bloc and avoid duplication of military tasks.

Germany's NATO missions Germany's role in NATO West Germany officially joined the trans-Atlantic alliance in 1955. However, it wasn't until after reunification in 1990 that the German government considered "out of area" missions led by NATO. From peacekeeping to deterrence, Germany's Bundeswehr has since been deployed in several countries across the globe in defense of its allies.

Germany's NATO missions Bosnia: Germany's first NATO mission In 1995, Germany participated in its first "out of area" NATO mission as part of a UN-mandated peacekeeping mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina. During the deployment, German soldiers joined other NATO member forces to provide security in the wake of the Bosnian War. The peacekeeping mission included more than 60,000 troops from NATO's member states and partners.

Germany's NATO missions Keeping the peace in Kosovo Since the beginning of the NATO-led peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, some 8,500 German soldiers have been deployed in the young country. In 1999, NATO launched an air assault against Serbian forces accused of carrying out a brutal crackdown against ethnic Albanian separatists and their civilian supporters. Approximately 550 Bundeswehr troops are still stationed in Kosovo.

Germany's NATO missions Patrolling the Aegean Sea In 2016, Germany deployed its combat support ship "Bonn" to lead a NATO mission backed by the EU in the Aegean Sea. The mission included conducting "reconnaissance, monitoring and surveillance of illegal crossings" in Greek and Turkish territorial waters at the height of the migration crisis. Germany, Greece and Turkey had requested assistance from the trans-Atlantic alliance.

Germany's NATO missions More than a decade in Afghanistan In 2003, Germany's parliament voted to send Bundeswehr troops to Afghanistan in support of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Germany became the third-largest contributor of troops and led the Regional Command North. More than 50 German troops were killed during the mission. Nearly a thousand soldiers are still deployed in Afghanistan as part of Resolute Support.

Germany's NATO missions German tanks in Lithuania Forming part of NATO's "enhanced forward presence" in the Baltic states, 450 Bundeswehr soldiers have been deployed to Lithuania so far in 2017. The battalion-size battlegroups there are led by Germany, Canada, the UK and US to reinforce collective defense on the alliance's eastern flank. It forms the "biggest reinforcement of Alliance collective defence in a generation," according to NATO.

Germany's NATO missions Taking over the leadership The Bundeswehr is due to take over leadership of NATO's multinational Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) at the start of 2019. The rapid reaction force has been set up to counter potential Russian aggression on the alliance's eastern flank. Author: Lewis Sanders IV



Leftists, peace activists doubtful

Von der Leyen's remarks Saturday coincided with plans by peace activists to protest the "open barrack" day. Also, the opposition Left party held a conference in Hannover where delegates said Germany needed peace policy initiatives instead of its 15 current armed deployments abroad.

According to Left party co-leader Bernd Riexinger, other German political parties - four months out from a general election - must acknowledge that multinational combat missions in which Germany was involved had failed.

"We have for 15 years run a war against terror in Afghanistan, and terror is greater there today. This whole foreign mission has failed completely. Many people have died," Riexinger said told public Deutschlandfunk radio early Saturday.

Stabilizing Africa

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who's currently visiting Central America, released a video message saying that, after decades of budget cuts, the Bundeswehr needed to increase its attractiveness for new recruits in areas such as cyber-security.

European defense cooperation would be closely coordinated with the NATO alliance, she stressed, noting that Europe had a keen interest in stabilizing Africa, a major route for refugees heading to Europe, mainly via Italy.

"As Europeans, we want a coordinated approach," Merkel said on Saturday.

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ipj/rc (Reuters, dpa, epd, AFP)