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German politicians have been unenthusiastic about US President-elect Donald Trump's demand that NATO allies spend 5 percent of GDP on defense.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Defense Minister Boris Pistorius have already expressed their reactions, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.
"Five percent would amount to more than 200 billion euros per year. The federal budget does not even reach 500 billion. This can only be achieved by significantly increasing taxes or significantly reducing many things that are important to us," Scholz said during an election campaign in Bielefeld.
At the same time, he assured that Germany would meet NATO's current target of at least 2 percent of GDP.
"I guarantee that we will continue to spend 2 percent of our economy on defense," the head of government said, adding that anyone who criticizes that path should say where the money will come from.
The same arguments were used by German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius at a press conference following the meeting of the heads of defense ministries of Poland, Germany, France, Italy, and the United Kingdom on January 13.
"It should be noted that 5 percent, as recently proposed by Donald Trump, would mean for Germany that we would have to spend just over 40 percent of our entire budget on defense," the minister said, noting that this would very quickly put a stop to any debate in the country.
He added that during the Cold War, Germany spent between 3 and 4,5 percent of its GDP on defense. But the question is not about the numbers, Pistorius said. For him, the decisive factor is how quickly it will be possible to “get every single NATO member state to meet the NATO capability targets that will be set this summer.” The criterion should be how quickly the Alliance can become fully defensive.
"I just think that a static discussion about percentages is not going to help us much if it doesn't ultimately lead to the implementation of what NATO has jointly agreed on, what the goals should be," Pistorius said.
NATO leaders did not agree with Donald Trump's proposal to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP, but may agree to increase the current figure.
The US president-elect said at a press conference on Tuesday that members of the military alliance should spend 5% of GDP on defense – a huge increase from the current figure of 2%.
