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Agency Report –
Speaking on the sidelines of a conference on Syria in Saudi Arabia, Baerbock said that the German government spent almost €7 billion ($7.2 billion) on weapons procurement for Ukraine last year.
If this were to be reduced to half or a little over half, Ukraine would be less able to defence itself, she said.
The Spiegel magazine reported on Thursday that the German government is arguing about further German arms deliveries to Ukraine.
According to the report, Baerbock and Defence Minister Boris Pistorius plan to mobilize around €3 billion in additional funding for urgently needed arms deliveries to Ukraine before Germany’s parliamentary elections on February 23.
However, according to the report, Chancellor Olaf Scholz is blocking these plans, saying it does not want to present the next government with a done deal.
After the collapse of Germany’s three-way coalition government in November, there is no national budget in place for 2025. The government is instead working with a provisional budget, which includes €4 billion in aid for Ukraine.
When asked about the reported disagreement by the public broadcaster ARD, Scholz noted that €12.5 billion are currently missing from the draft budget. The additional €3 billion would take the gap in funding to €15.5 billion, which cannot be financed without additional borrowing, he said.
The question of how to plug the multi-billion-euro hole in Germany’s budget triggered the coalition break-up. Scholz wanted to suspend a constitutional debt limit in order to acquire the necessary funding. But his coalition partner, the pro-business Free Democrats, was staunchly against this.
A government spokeswoman said on Friday that military aid for Ukraine was a permanent topic within the government and that the government was holding internal discussions on the matter.
