Germany working on independent AI military tech, while European Union pursues trade matters without the USA

Continuing Church of God rendering of the Beast that rises
from the sea (Revelation 13:1-2 and 17:3)

A reader sent me a link to the following:

‘Resilience factories’

Leading German defence start-ups enter ‘strategic partnership’ to expand AI-based warfare. They seek autonomy from US components and US finance.

BERLIN (own report) – Two of Germany’s leading defence start-ups are forming a “strategic partnership” to advance AI-based warfare development. The companies both aim at the greatest possible autonomy from US players in the field. The development of an “AI-based reconnaissance and response network” will, they claim, enable armed forces to “act faster, more precisely and more efficiently in combat situations and operate at greater distances than today.” Their weaponry will deliberately be “European in design”, according to both Helsing and Arx Robotics. Helsing is the most expensive German start-up ever, valued at twelve billion euros. Arx Robotics is also seen as a rising star in the start-up scene. Unlike legacy defence companies such as Rheinmetall, which typically have close transatlantic business links, the new start-up scene hopes to establish European, and in some cases even purely German, armaments production independently of the United States. …

For Europe, in Europe’

Arx Robotics, also founded in 2021, shares Helsing’s quest for autonomous production that can operate as independently as possible from non-European component suppliers. The start-up also says it has been careful to attract “exclusively European investors”. It is committed to ensuring that “the start-up’s supply chain is European”.[5] Arx Robotics manufactures mini-tanks, an unmanned ground vehicle called the ‘Gereon’, which weighs just under 400 kilograms. These robotic mini-tanks are primarily intended for use in the military “death corridor” along the front line between two armies. …

‘European design’

Last week, Helsing and Arx Robotics announced a “strategic partnership”. They aim to “develop an AI-based reconnaissance and response network for European defence.”[8] More specifically, the objective is to “digitize, network and AI-equip the previously highly fragmented and analogue land assets.” This should enable “armed forces in combat situations” to act “faster, more precisely and more efficiently, and at greater distances than today.” What’s more, the partnership is explicitly “European in scope”. …

Competitive advantages

Helsing and Arx Robotics are prime examples of the new German defence start-ups focused on “intra-European or German value chains” without US components, notes Franz Enders, the author of a recent study on the subject. “ 09/15/25 https://www.german-foreign-policy.com/en/news/detail/10114

The article mentions German-European military plans to “act faster, more precisely and more efficiently in combat situations and operate at greater distances than today.” Acting faster brings to mind the ‘blitzkrieg’ tactics Germany used in WWII. Notice also that the Europeans want their forces to be able to operate at greater distances than they do today. Think against places like the USA!

As long-time readers of this COGwriter Church of God News page realize, I have been warning since 2009 that the Europeans would rely on technology to get to the point that it could take over the USA, which a future European leader is prophesied to do per Daniel 11:39 and Isaiah 10:5-11.

Europeans continue to take steps to not only develop military technology, but to do so in ways that are independent of the USA.

But military tech is not the only way the Europeans are moving away from the USA, trade is another.

Despite the Trump Administration trying to push Europe to be harsher against China and India, the EU is resisting. Notice:

Why the European Union won’t hit China with the 100% tariffs that Trump wants

Donald Trump’s request for 100% tariffs on China is unlikely to gather the necessary support among European Union countries.

Donald Trump has thrown down his gauntlet: he wants European nations to impose 50% to 100% tariffs on China …

While Brussels voiced readiness to accelerate the phase-out of Russian fossil fuels, it pushed back rather decisively against the request for the three-digit tariffs.

“Any new measures to be announced in the 19th sanctions package will be fully in line with EU rules and procedures, notably the long-held principle that our sanctions do not apply extra-territorially,” said a spokesperson of the European Commission.

Privately, diplomats were franker: no way. https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2025/09/16/why-the-european-union-wont-hit-china-with-the-100-tariffs-that-trump-wants

The European Union (EU) proposed a new strategic agenda with India that raises bilateral relations to a higher level amid calls from the United States to hit India with massive tariffs. …

But as the EU and the US align their policies against Russia on secondary sanctions for its war in Ukraine, the Trump reportedly called on the bloc to impose up to 100% tariffs on India.

However, the EU seems to have adopted a different approach in its new strategic agenda: lure India away from Russia’s orbit of influence through a trade deal and enhanced strategic ties.

“Now is the time to focus on reliable partners and double down on partnerships rooted in shared interests and guided by common values,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.

“With our new EU-India strategy, we are taking our relationship to the next level.” …

An EU official said there might be advantages to a better relationship with India.

India is a “moderating voice,” … in forums, such as BRICS and the China-led Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), where New Delhi has a seat but the EU is missing. …

Europeans view India as a partner equally interested in preserving a rules-based global trade order. …

Germany has decided to double its trade volume with India, and Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar said India was banking on Germany’s support for the EU-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA). 09/17/25 https://www.dw.com/en/eu-india-strategic-ties-trade-defense-trump-tariffs-russia-putin-graphics/a-74030565

As far as trade goes, notice something earlier from the German press:

EU and Germany push for a new World Trade Organization

4 July 2025

Brussels and Berlin have launched a new initiative aimed at bypassing the long-standing paralysis of the World Trade Organization (WTO) caused by the United States. …

A proposal, introduced by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, has sparked considerable attention.

Speaking at the end of a summit of EU leaders in Brussels on June 27, they floated the idea of the EU taking the lead in forming an alternative to the World Trade Organization (WTO), the world trade body that has been in place since 1995.

Merz said the idea was in its early stages but could include mechanisms to resolve disputes, as the WTO was meant to do.

“You all know that the WTO doesn’t work anymore,” he said, adding that a “new kind of trade organization” could gradually replace “what we no longer have with the WTO.”

The German chancellor was referring to the near-total breakdown of the WTO’s dispute resolution mechanism.

It was former US President Barack Obama who first blocked appointments to the WTO’s Appellate Body — its top court for trade disputes — during his later years in office.

That blockade has continued under every US administration since, regardless of party affiliation, as successive governments have opposed WTO rulings that they argue undermine US national interests. …

The EU’s von der Leyen emphasized plans for a particularly close partnership with like-minded trade nations in Asia, referencing potential cooperation with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). …

Trade liberalization without the United States

But can Europe realistically create a new WTO without US involvement? …

Jürgen Matthes, an international trade policy expert at the Cologne, Germany-based German Economic Institute (IW), expressed support …

“A formal EU application to join the CPTPP would be a strategically important move in several respects,” Matthes said. “It would send a clear signal to the US that its protectionism is isolating it, while the rest of the world continues to liberalize trade.”

Matthes also said this would create a “remarkably large trans-regional trade agreement,” involving major economies, “with the EU as the largest bloc.”

“It would cover nearly all continents. And maybe some African countries could be brought on board as well,” he added. … “The goal is to form a strategic trade alliance that addresses today’s pressing issues in global trade — not only US protectionism, but also the massive market distortions caused by China’s subsidies, which current WTO rules don’t effectively address,” said Matthes. …

The EU’s dual message to both the US and China appears to be part of a deliberate communication strategy that has evolved since US President Donald Trump’s tariff war. …

Matthes envisions a new alliance under the banner of “Open Markets with Fair Trade.” In such a setup, “the US is out when it comes to open markets, and China is out when it comes to fair trade — unless things change under a new US administration or a reformed China emerges.”

He sees multiple advantages to this strategy. “We’d achieve more trade liberalization and gain access to new markets. We’d isolate the US more and show Trump that protectionism is ultimately a dead end.” At the same time, Europe could send a clear message to China that it will no longer tolerate market distortions, he added. https://www.dw.com/en/eu-and-germany-push-for-a-new-world-trade-organization/a-73143928

Yes, Europe wants to dominate world trade. I also reported about this plan when EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen originally proposed it (see EU proposing to set standards for a new (or substantially changed) international trading organization).

In 2017, I posted:

Europe is interested in trade deals, and will make them whether or not the USA is party to them. (Thiel B. Pew poll concludes US image in the world tarnished because of Donald Trump, but what about CNN and Edward Snowden? COGwriter, June 27, 2017)

The EU is basically, publicly calling for setting trade standards and a world trade system that does not have to involve the USA.

That is also consistent with something posted here back in 2018:

To avert a ‘trade apocalypse,’ Europe wants to rewrite the rules for international trade. That is consistent with warnings in the Book of the Apocalypse, more commonly referred to these days as the Book of Revelation. …

One of the ways that this Babylonian European power will be able to dominate world trade is by developing/writing/controlling many of the rules for international trade.

Europe is intending to do that right now! With more and more of the world upset by US President Donald Trump, Europe is seizing an opportunity–an opportunity that will result in it fulfilling various end time prophecies. (Thiel B. ‘Trade apocalypse’ will lead to the fulfilling of prophecies in the Book of the Apocalypse COGwriter, June 26, 2018)

Europe will rise up as the leader in world trade. With 450 million in the EU, plus 150 million wanting in, and multiple other millions in Europe aligning with the EU, steps towards making Europe the end-time Babylonian trading entity of biblical prophecies are coming to pass.

Notice that the Bible says that all trading nations will have become wealthy trading with end-time Babylon, the restored European Empire:

3 For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury (Revelation 18:3).

12 merchandise of gold and silver, precious stones and pearls, fine linen and purple, silk and scarlet, every kind of citron wood, every kind of object of ivory, every kind of object of most precious wood, bronze, iron, and marble; 13 and cinnamon and incense, fragrant oil and frankincense, wine and oil, fine flour and wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and bodies and souls of men. (Revelation 18:12-13)

Notice some items in my book available at Amazon Kindle: Unintended Consequences and Donald Trump’s Presidency: Is Donald Trump Fulfilling Biblical, Islamic, Greco-Roman Catholic, Buddhist, and other America-Related Prophecies? as well as Amazon print Unintended Consequences and Donald Trump’s Presidency: Is Donald Trump Fulfilling Biblical, Islamic, Greco-Roman Catholic, Buddhist, and other America-Related Prophecies?:

Donald Trump’s foreign policy statements have unsettled many—in the USA as well as foreign nations. …

Donald Trump’s tariff and other economic policies are getting the Gentile nations of Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Asia to look to trade more with each other. An unintended consequence of his rhetoric and policies is that they are encouraging the end-time rise of the final time of the Gentiles. …

Trade

Historically, Donald Trump has called for “fair trade” and indicated that various nations, including several in Asia, are not engaged in fair trade, so he has proposed high tariffs.[i]

Donald Trump has called tariffs, “the most beautiful word in the dictionary” and even proposed massive tariffs (up to 2000%) on Mexico if it will not do what he wants.[ii] He has basically also proposed a minimum of 10% tariffs on goods from much of the rest of the world.

Some believe that Donald Trump’s positions on trade will lead to a global trade war.[iii] Europe has said it will hit back against Donald Trump’s tariff policies.[iv] It is my position that trade disputes will be a factor in Europe taking military action against the USA one day.

One of the unintended consequences of Donald Trump’s threats of tariffs and other trade matters is that it is motivating nations he has threatened to look to trade more with each other.

The morning after his reelection, I wrote:

According to the major media, Donald Trump won re-election. … Europe will get more serious about trade deals with others internationally, such as being more motivated to approve the trade deal with the Mercosur block of South America.[v]

On December 6, 2024, Politico reported that the European Union approved the massive Mercosur trade deal, despite opposition from France and others, and also pointed to Donald Trump’s reelection as a factor.[vi]

Energy and climate policy differences between the Europeans and Donald Trump look to increase the negative view many in Europe already have about the USA. …

Unintended Consequences

While Donald Trump seems to believe that his policies are best for the United States, notice some unintended consequences of them: …

Pushing tariffs and sanctions on other countries is contributing to the rise of the final time of the Gentiles (Luke 21:24; Ezekiel 7:24).

Pushing tariffs and other policies that foreign nations do not like is contributing to other nations looking to bypass the USA dollar, as well as trade more with each other and less with the USA. This will further push various globalist’s moves forward without the USA. This is also helping set the stage for the coming European Babylonian Beast to dominate international trade.

[i] ^{Trade: Donald J. Trump’s Vision. https://www.donaldjtrump.com/policies/trade accessed December 16, 2016}

[ii]^{Pan J. Donald Trump calls tariff ‘the most beautiful word,’ threatens up to 2,000% tariff to block Mexican car imports. Yahoo News, November 3, 2024}

[iii]^{Islam F. Will Trump’s victory spark a global trade war? BBC, November 7, 2024}

[iv] ^{Vella JH. EU’s game plan for Trump trade war: ‘Hit back fast and hard.’ Polico.eu, October 21, 2024}

[v]^{Thiel B. Media declares Donald Trump won the election–now what? y Donald trump y eventos para observar. COGwriter, November 6, 2024}

[vi] ^{Gijs C, Leali G. EU snubs France to seal huge Latin American trade deal. Politico, December 6, 2024}

Since the above was published, more countries are looking seriously about bypassing the US dollar because of tariffs, sanctions, and other economic issues.

Regarding how the international trade situation will end up, earlier this year the The Continuing Church of God put together the following video on our Bible News Prophecy YouTube channel discussing various views and scriptures about that:

14:49

Trade Wars – and the Winner will be …

US President Trump imposed tariffs on a global scale. Those tariffs were imposed on friend and foe alike. It seems as if President Trump is no respecter of nations. But how will this work out for the United States? Will these tariffs result in other nations drawing closer together that have had rather cold, and even not so cold, relations in the past? Will global tariffs result in trade wars? Were the events which are happening predicted by any in the Continuing Church of God? Is Europe drawing closer to China? Is Europe drawing closer to Latin and South America? With the exception of a few of America’s allies, is the net result of these tariffs a worldwide scramble to create new alliances and new trading partners to the exclusion of the United States? What will be the future result of these new alliances? Many of the nations that are now seeking new alliances were just recently America’s allies. They were her friends. Dr. Thiel brings to light the fate of America and her allies at the hands of her former friends, as revealed in the book of Lamentations. As we rapidly approach the end times listen in as Dr. Thiel brings to light world events. Then listen as he shines the light of Bible prophecy directly on the questions raised from these world events.

Here is a link to our video: Trade Wars – and the Winner will be …

Now, what about developing its military?

Many think Europe cannot rise up again as many think Europe is basically dead and would be shocked to see it rise again. That, too, was prophesied in the Bible:

1 Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name. 2 Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority. 3 And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marveled and followed the beast. 4 So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?” (Revelation 13:1-4)

People will marvel when the European King of the North Beast power rises up militarily and defeats places like the USA and UK.

Blitzkrieg tactics, deceit, and technology will be involved.

How do we know that this is a European power?

Let’s consider something from Daniel 11:23-24:

23 And after the league is made with him he shall act deceitfully, for he shall come up and become strong with a small number of people. 24 He shall enter peaceably, even into the richest places of the province; and he shall do what his fathers have not done, nor his forefathers: he shall disperse among them the plunder, spoil, and riches; and he shall devise his plans against the strongholds, but only for a time. (Daniel 11:23-24).

Consider that the German-European alliance was defeated in WWI and WWII. So, the father and forefathers of the final King of the North failed to defeat the UK and USA. But notice that he is prophesied to be successful against the strongholds, in this case meaning the military alliance of the USA and UK–and that is also consistent with Daniel 11:39:

39 Thus he shall act against the strongest fortresses with a foreign god, which he shall acknowledge, and advance its glory; and he shall cause them to rule over many, and divide the land for gain. (Daniel 11:39)

The “he” is the King of the North. The two Hebrew words translated as “the strongest fortresses” in verse 39 do not appear together anywhere else in the Bible.

Something is, thus, unique here. As mentioned previously, Daniel 11:24 seems to parallel this as it teaches that the King of the North has plans against the strongholds and succeeds against the prosperous.

Notice also the following prophecies related to the beasts:

2 Daniel spoke, saying, “I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the Great Sea. 3 And four great beasts came up from the sea, each different from the other. 4 The first was like a lion, and had eagle’s wings. I watched till its wings were plucked off; and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand on two feet like a man, and a man’s heart was given to it. 5 “And suddenly another beast, a second, like a bear. It was raised up on one side, and had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. And they said thus to it: ‘Arise, devour much flesh!’ 6 “After this I looked, and there was another, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird. The beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it. 7 “After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth; it was devouring, breaking in pieces, and trampling the residue with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. (Daniel 7:2-7)

The “Great Sea” that bordered the ancient lands of Israel (Numbers 34:6-7; Joshua 1:4; 9:1; 23:4; Ezekiel 47:13-16) is the Mediterranean Sea–and that is the sea that Daniel was referring to. Despite some false claims by some, the Beast power is not a nation like Russia, which does not border the Mediterranean Sea, but Europe which does.

Other passages in Daniel, such as Daniel 9:26-27, also prove that this is a European power that will rise up.

Watch also the following related video:

14:32

Germany’s Great Army – Any Problems? WWIII?

At long last, from the perspective of the United States, Germany is stepping up to the plate and greatly increasing its military spending. The politicians in Germany have found a way to bypass the legal limitation on debt enshrined in the Basic Law. This is intended to enable them to develop the military and weaponry they feel is needed to protect themselves from potential threats. The Germans and 75% of NATO feel they have to take these type of steps because they feel the USA can no longer be relied on to help protect them militarily. Politico asked about Germany’s military rebuilding, “What Could Go Wrong?” Could this rebuilding be part of the rise of the “Fourth Reich”? If so, what would this mean? What were the first three Reichs? The so-called ‘Holy Roman Empire’ was the first. Imperial Germany of the 19th century was the second. Adolph Hitler’s Nazi Germany was the third. Can the rise of the fourth Reich be related to a revival of some type of the Holy Roman Empire? The Bible shows that the final King of the North will have a “great army” (Daniel 11:25) and “many ships” (Daniel 11:40). Could that be Germany, which is also working on many military technologies, including supercollider research? Consider, further, that the Bible tells of a power that had been unsuccessful going against a prosperous nation with a strong military before (WWI and WII?), but will finally succeed per Daniel 11:24 and Daniel 11:39. Could the next attempt be World War III and the end of the United States of America? Could the USA be the ungodly/hypocritical nation of Isaiah 10:7 that God says He will use the end-time descendants of Assyria to punish? Are there any prophetic and historic ties between ancient Assyria and the Germanic peoples of Central Europe? Watch this video and listen as Dr. Thiel shines the light of Biblical prophecy right from the pages of the Bible on the full ramifications of the rise of the Beast whose deadly wound was healed!