Chancellor Olaf Scholz comes to Berlin for the weekly cabinet meeting of the federal government on October 11, 2023.
Michele Tantussi | Getty Images News | Getty Images
MUNICH, Germany (AP) — Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Saturday reaffirmed Berlin’s commitment to spending 2% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) on defense this year and in the longer term.
“Germany will invest 2% of its GDP in defense in the 2020s, 2030s and beyond,” Scholz said at the Munich Security Conference.
Germany made this commitment in 2024 for the first time since the early 1990s through regular and special budget spending, a defense ministry spokesman said on Wednesday, according to Reuters.
“We Europeans have to pay much more attention to our own security now and in the future,” said Scholz.
This comes as NATO members across Europe have committed to increasing their defense spending.
Eighteen of the 31 members of the U.S.-led military alliance will meet the 2% spending target this year, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday.
“We are making real progress,” said Stoltenberg. “European allies are spending more.”
The announcement came just days after former US President Donald Trump said over the weekend that he would encourage Russia to do “whatever the hell they want” with NATO members that fail to meet their 2% spending target.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Saturday that the US had the right to demand more from European countries to meet its defense spending targets, but he stressed that this should not be done at the behest of the potential US presidential candidate.
“Stop whining, moaning and complaining about Trump,” he said.
“We’re not spending more on defense or increasing munitions production because Trump might come back. We have to do this because we want to do this, because it is in our interest,” he continued.
Rutte added that it was “up to the Americans” whether they return the former president to power in November’s elections and that Europe must “work with whoever is on the dance floor.”
Germany’s increased funding of the Bundeswehr
According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, European defense spending currently averages 1.6% of GDP.
The defense budgets of Germany, France and Italy – the top-spending NATO militaries after the United States and the United Kingdom – remained below the alliance’s 2 percent target in 2023, although both countries have plans to meet the target in the coming years years.
Germany announced a new 100 billion euro ($107 billion) debt-backed fund for the Bundeswehr to bolster its national security in 2022, just days after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
At the time, Scholz called the move a “turning point” – or turning point – in Germany’s modern history that would allow the country to reach its long-held defense spending target of 2%.
The country is expected to spend around 72 billion euros on defense this year, but concerns remain about what will happen when these funds run out in 2027.
According to the Financial Times, experts estimate the government would need to raise 25 to 30 billion euros a year to meet this target, which would likely lead to cuts in social spending. Germany is one of the few countries whose constitution has a debt ceiling enshrined.
Source link
2024-02-17 17:08:27
www.cnbc.com