'Of course we are reliable partner,' says German defense chief over tapped military call

By Burak Bir

LONDON (AA) — A recent incident in which Russian hackers intercepted and leaked a teleconference between two German army officers does not undermine its reliability as an ally, Germany's defense minister asserted Tuesday.

The call between the German army officers was on an unsecured line via a hotel's internet network, Boris Pistorius said at a joint news conference with his Swedish counterpart Pal Jonson in Karlberg Palace in southeastern Sweden.

Pistorius said the wiretapping took place due to the mistake by one of the officers who was on a visit to Singapore.

"This was an individual human error. We do have rules for such conversations," said the German defense chief, who, while underlining the integrity of their communication and information protection systems, admitted that they needed to be further strengthened.

"For us in this day and age where we have hybrid warfare, digital warfare, we need to make sure we can further improve and strengthen and harden our systems because this can always happen," added Pistorius.

He also claimed that such a case of wiretapping would usually not be made public, but that this case showed that Russian President Vladimir Putin "is not interested in the information itself that he gathers."

"He just wanted to embarrass us and to try and divide our unity and try to undermine our support for Ukraine," he asserted.

Pistorius' remarks came in response to a question on whether Germany is a safe ally for Sweden after this incident as the Nordic country is in the process of joining NATO.

"Normally, I would say it is quite an unpolite question having a guest in the room to ask whether he is reliable, but of course I understand what do you mean," Pistorius said, adding: "Of course, we are reliable partner."

For his part, Jonson said that as Sweden, they were not aware of this incident compromising Swedish interests in any way.

Touching on steps Sweden is taking to enhance cyber security, he said they were also drafting a new strategy on this matter.

"It is very important, of course, to strengthen our resilience in the in this aspect," added Jonson.

The two counterparts also signed a declaration of intent on Tuesday aiming to boost their bilateral defense ties.