As of: February 14, 2024, 4:23 p.m
Comments
Press
Split
The last time Germany spent two percent of its gross domestic product was in 1992.
© Daniel Naupold/dpa
During his time as US President, Donald Trump used threats to try to persuade countries like Germany to increase military spending.
What he couldn't do, Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin succeeds.
Brussels/Berlin - For the first time in three decades, Germany has reported to NATO planned defense spending amounting to two percent of gross domestic product.
According to research by the German Press Agency, the federal government submitted an amount for the current year that, when converted into comparative figures from the defense alliance, corresponds to a sum of 73.41 billion dollars.
In absolute terms, this is a record for Germany and, according to the current NATO forecast, would mean a GDP ratio of 2.01 percent.
Germany has reached the target with the help of the 100 billion euro special fund for the Bundeswehr, which is expected to be exhausted by 2027.
The federal government confirmed on Wednesday that Germany wanted to meet the target in the following years from 2028 onwards.
It is clear to everyone "that we have to put significantly more money into defense, into the defense budget, because the special fund will no longer flow into it - and that is the main task," said government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit in Berlin.
Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) said in Brussels that the householders were now racking their brains over the question of what would happen from 2028 onwards.
This is necessary, but it is still too early to answer that today.
Bundeswehr is far from “warworthy”.
Regardless of the increasing expenditure, the Bundeswehr is clearly away from the declared goal of war capability and so the two percent target alone is not an indicator.
It can take years for some ordered weapon systems to reach the troops, which at the same time have handed over equipment and ammunition to Ukraine.
One of the parameters that recently worsened was that at the turn of the year there were only 181,500 soldiers left, 1,500 men and women fewer than a year earlier.
Inspector General Carsten Breuer also admitted in an interview with “Welt am Sonntag” that Germany will only be able to provide NATO with some of the capabilities it has promised and that it will be honest about the matter.
He didn't get any more specific.
However, there are doubts as to whether the army division promised to be operational by 2025 will actually be there.
During the Cold War the rate was over three percent
In the past, according to documents from the NATO archives, Germany last spent two percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) in 1992.
During the Cold War years the rate was usually over three percent.
My news
“If you don’t want us as Bavaria …”: Söder threatens to leave the Federal Republic of Germany – and calls for compulsory military service
Mysterious aircraft disappearance: FSB investigates Russia's aviation authorityread
Tanks in urban warfare: Putin is threatened with a new catastrophe like in Groznylesen
“Extra weapons on board”: Frigate “Hessen” on its way to the Red Sea
Estonia sounds the alarm: Russia is preparing for a NATO confrontation with a “mass army”.
Putin experiences survey shock from his own population read
The development of defense spending by the NATO states will be discussed this Thursday at a meeting of defense ministers at the alliance headquarters in Brussels.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday in Brussels that he assumed that this year 18 of the 31 allies would achieve the NATO goal of spending two percent of their gross domestic product on defense.
That is six times as many as in 2014. At that time, only three alliance partners achieved the two percent target.
Increase of more than 20 percent
The new German figures correspond to an increase in defense spending of more than 20 percent compared to the previous year, according to NATO circles.
The last public report on defense spending by the alliance states only gave a comparative figure of $56.64 billion and a GDP ratio of 1.57 percent for Germany for 2023.
According to dpa information, these numbers will be corrected upwards in the next report.
With the drastic increase in defense spending, the federal government is reacting in particular to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
By significantly strengthening deterrence and defense, the aim is to make it clear to Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin that an attack on a European NATO country would have no chance of success.
According to the Ministry of Defense, the money will be used to finance, among other things, new infantry fighting vehicles, frigates, submarines and state-of-the-art F-35A multi-role combat aircraft.
Trump factor
The numbers could also be helpful with a view to a possible re-election of Donald Trump in the US presidential election in November.
The Republican made it clear during a campaign appearance at the weekend that he would not provide American support to allies with low defense spending in the event of a Russian attack.
During his term in office from 2017 to 2021, Trump had repeatedly complained about what he considered to be too low defense spending by European allies and at times even threatened that the USA would leave the alliance.
The new two percent target
NATO's current defense spending target requires alliance members to permanently invest at least two percent of their gross domestic product in defense annually.
It was decided last summer in the face of threats from Russia.
The target that was valid to date only stipulated that by 2024 all alliance states would approach the benchmark of spending at least two percent of their GDP on defense.
NATO plans to present a new public overview with data on member states' defense spending in March.
It will then also show how high the estimated German defense spending is in current prices.
According to information from the German Press Agency, the internal preparatory documents for the defense ministers' meeting this Thursday only contain the inflation-adjusted comparative figures in US dollars.
There was only an appetizer for the public on Wednesday.
“In 2024, allies in Europe will invest a combined $380 billion in defense,” Stoltenberg said.
This corresponds to two percent of the projected collective gross domestic product of the countries.
dpa