Germany should step up its leadership on the international stage and liberalise its arms exports policy, including to consider sending weapons to Ukraine, the future chief of the Munich Security Conference, Christoph Heusgen, said in an interview.

Germany has come under fire for refusing to send weapons to Ukraine, unlike other Western allies, amid fears of a fresh Russian invasion. Germany has a long-standing policy of not exporting weapons to war zones rooted partly in its bloody 20th-century history and resulting pacifism...