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Germany has indicated that the defense expense will increase online with the request of US President Donald Trump so that NATO members reach 5 percent of GDP, as conservative chancellor Friedrich Merz promises to turn Bundeswehr into the “strongest army” in Europe.
Speaking at a meeting in Antalya on Thursday, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said that Berlin was “after” Trump about his demand for NATO allies to reach a 5 percent goal. Currently, the alliance has an expenditure objective of 2 percent.
“We see this (request) as a clear commitment from the United States of America with article 5,” the NATO collective defense clause, Wadephul added.
But Wadephul also pointed out that the way in which the country would meet the objective would be to adopt a proposal by the NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
The Dutchman has asked NATO members to reach 3.5 percent of GDP in “hard military spending” by 2032, to which he has suggested add 1.5 percent of GDP on “related expenses”, including infrastructure and cyber security.
Rutte has argued that the strengthened infrastructure should be part of the general security spending, and cited the example of bridges “to conduct our cars, but also if necessary to ensure that the bridge holds a tank.”
Rutte’s proposal is considered a commitment that would allow Trump to claim a victory at the NATO leaders summit in The Hague next month.
Berlin is scheduled to meet the 2 percent objective this year, after having trusted the United States for protection in the last 80 years.
“When it comes to the central expenditure of defense, we need to do a lot, much more,” Routte reiterated to journalists in Antalya, adding that Russia could reconstitute their armed forces in 3-5 years.
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Or the 32 NATO members, Just Poland is currently close to the 5 percent target, while the great economies, including Italy and Spain, are below the old objective. The Italian government informed NATO this week that had reached 2 percent, although it is still an uncle which expenses included in the calculations.
Rutte said at the Thursday meeting that all countries struggled to reach 2 percent for next month. Poland and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, who border Russia, have pledged to go beyond the 5 percent target.
The Secretary of State of the United States, Marco Rubio, said that NATO was “as strong as its weakest link, and that we do not want it to be weak.”
Germany has intensified efforts after Merz’s Democrats won parliamentary elections in February.
On the day of the victory of his matches, Merz said that Germany needed to “achieve independence” from the United States. Like many in Germany, the staunch atlanticist has been shaken by the hostile tone emanating from the White House from Trump’s elections. The Trump administration was “largely indifferent to the destination of Europe,” Merz said at that time.
Merz managed to change the constitution of the country before assuming the position as a chancellor to eliminate the indebtedness limit for defense spending, promising to invest hundreds of billions of euros in the Bundeswehr. He reached an agreement with his coalition partners, the Social Democrats, to establish a fund of 500 billion euros to modernize the aging infrastructure of the country.
In his first speech as Bundestag’s chancellor on Wednesday, Merz promised to “provide all the financial resources that the German armed forces must become the strongest army in Europe in conventional terms.”
“The force deter the aggression; weakness invites aggression,” said Merz.
Additional reports from Laura Pitel in Berlin and Amy Kazmin in Rome
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