Defense spending: Germany reports record amount to NATO South Tyrolean apples cause pesticide contamination in national parks

For the first time in three decades, Germany has reported to NATO planned defense spending of two percent of gross domestic product. According to research by the German Press Agency, the federal government has submitted an amount for the current year that, when converted to comparative figures from the defense alliance, corresponds to an amount of $ 73.41 billion. In absolute terms, this is a record value for Germany and would mean a GDP ratio of 2.01 percent according to the current NATO forecast.

According to documents from the NATO archives, Germany last spent two percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) in 1992. During the Cold War, this percentage was usually more than three percent.

The development of NATO countries’ defense spending will be discussed this Thursday during a meeting of defense ministers at the alliance’s headquarters in Brussels. It is expected that approximately 20 of the 31 NATO countries will achieve the two percent target this year.

An increase of more than 20 percent

According to NATO circles, the new figures correspond to an increase in defense spending of more than 20 percent compared to the previous year. 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 in 2023. According to information from dpa, these figures will be corrected upwards in the next report.

With the drastic increase in defense spending, the federal government is mainly responding to the Russian 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 has no chance of success.

According to the Ministry of Defense, the money will be used to finance new infantry fighting vehicles, frigates, submarines and state-of-the-art F-35A multi-role fighter aircraft, among other things.

Trump factor

The figures could also be helpful in view of a possible re-election of Donald Trump in the US presidential elections in November. The Republican made clear during a campaign appearance last weekend that he would not provide American support to allies with low defense spending in the event of a Russian attack. During his term from 2017 to 2021, Trump had repeatedly complained about what he saw as under-defense spending by European allies and at times even threatened that the US would leave the alliance.

The new target of two percent

NATO’s current defense spending target requires alliance members to permanently invest at least two percent of their gross domestic product annually in defense. This was decided last summer, despite threats from Russia. The target to date only stipulated that all alliance states would approach the benchmark of spending at least two percent of their GDP on defense by 2024.

NATO plans to present a new public overview in March with data on member states’ defense spending. It will therefore show how high the estimated German defense expenditure is in current prices. According to information from the German Press Agency, the internal preparatory documents for the meeting of defense ministers next Thursday contain only the inflation-adjusted comparative figures in US dollars.

With special funds for NATO quotas

The huge increase in German defense spending is currently made possible by a special fund worth 100 billion euros. However, it is expected that this will be used up by 2027. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) therefore insists that a plan be quickly developed on how Germany can achieve NATO’s long-term goals. “We have the chancellor’s promise that we will invest at least two percent of gross domestic product in defense by 2030,” Pistorius recently told “Spiegel.” The foreseeable end of the special fund must be reflected in the financial planning. (yam/sda/dpa)