BERLIN —Germany will take more responsibility for Europe’s defense by building the biggest army in the EU, conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in a wide-ranging speech in the Bundestag on Wednesday.

“The federal government will provide all the financial resources that the Bundeswehr needs to become the strongest conventional army in Europe,” Merz said. “This is more than appropriate for the most populous and economically strongest country in Europe. Our friends and partners also expect this from us, and what’s more, they are actually demanding it.”

The comments come after Merz led a historic U-turn on German fiscal policy, including a drastic loosening the country’s constitutional debt brake to potentially unlock hundreds of billions of euros of borrowing for defense. That cash can also be used to finance military support for Ukraine.

Merz, in his speech, underlined that Germany would continue to back Kyiv.

“There must be no doubt about where we stand,” he said. “Namely, unconditionally on the side of the Ukrainians.”

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Germany has drastically increased military spending, though its armed forces — known as the Bundeswehr — remain in dire need of investment after many years of post-Cold War disarmament and austerity.