Agency Report –
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Sunday called for the approval of €3 billion ($3.1 billion) in arms deliveries to Ukraine before Germany’s February 23 election.
Baerbock expressed hope that the Budget Committee could finalize the approval in the coming week, she told public broadcaster ARD.
“We are experiencing that the Russian president shows no regard for the fact that we are currently in an election campaign and facing a snap election,” Baerbock said, referring to Vladimir Putin’s ongoing war in Ukraine.
The arms delivery proposal has sparked a dispute between Baerbock, of the Green Party, and Chancellor Olaf Scholz of the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD).
Scholz has said he would only approve the arms deliveries if the so-called debt brake, which sets strict government borrowing limits, is suspended to accommodate the funding.
Baerbock and her Green Party colleagues, along with the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) and the conservative CDU/CSU bloc, argue that financing the aid for Ukraine through “extraordinary expenditure” is a feasible option.
Ukraine has been defending itself against a Russian full-scale invasion since February 2022.
