Germany’s defense spending apparently exceeds the two percent mark

For the first time in three decades, Germany apparently reported defense spending to NATO amounting to two percent of gross domestic product. NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg is presenting new figures on member contributions today.

Germany has apparently reported to NATO planned defense spending amounting to two percent of gross domestic product for the first time in three decades. According to research by the dpa news 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 value for Germany.

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 years of the Cold War, the rate was usually more than three percent. In the last public report on defense spending by the alliance states, a comparative figure of $56.64 billion and a GDP ratio of 1.57 percent were given for Germany for 2023. According to dpa information, these numbers will be corrected upwards in the next report.

Stoltenberg presents figures

At the meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg wants to present the new figures on defense spending by the member countries today. According to reports from several media outlets, he wants to announce that this year around two thirds of the 31 allies will spend at least two percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) on defense – almost twice as many members as last year. Germany should then also be one of these countries.

By significantly strengthening deterrence and defense, Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin should be made clear that an attack on a European NATO country would have no chance of success.

Former US President Donald Trump 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. There is great outrage and criticism among alliance partners about this. US President Joe Biden had also criticized his predecessor’s statements and now followed up again with sharp words: “That’s stupid, that’s shameful, that’s dangerous, that’s un-American,” said Biden.

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.

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.