Agency Report –
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul on Thursday said he backs US President Donald Trump’s demands for NATO members to spend 5% of their economic output on defence.
Wadepuhl said he agreed with Trump’s assessment that the drastic increase was necessary, after meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the sidelines of a gathering of NATO foreign ministers in the Turkish city of Antalya.
Washington has called for allies to agree on a new target of spending 5% of gross domestic product (GDP) on defence at the upcoming NATO summit in June.
Currently, NATO members are committed to spending at least 2% of GDP on military expenditure, although not all have achieved the goal.
Germany is currently spending just over 2% of its GDP on defence.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said last week that each additional percentage point would mean further annual expenditure of €45 billion ($50.5 billion) for Berlin.
In Antalya, Rubio said “NATO has the opportunity to grow even stronger.”
“The alliance is only as strong as its weakest link, and we intend and endeavor to have no weak links in this alliance,” he added.
One possible compromise to reach a higher target could be to take into account significantly more expenditure on infrastructure for military use.
A possible split could be to agree that traditional defence spending would be raised to 3.5% of GDP, with an additional 1.5% of GDP to be spent on infrastructure. A deadline for meeting a new defence spending target could be the year 2032.
Rubio said at a NATO meeting in Brussels in April that no one expected 5% to be achieved in a year or two. Achieving the new target would also be a financial effort for the US.
“We have to think about what we can do to make sure that we have all the defense-related expenditures in place,” said NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, arriving at the Antalya meeting.
“For example, to make sure that bridges are there for you and me to drive our cars, but also, if necessary, to make sure that the bridge will hold a tank,” he added.
Rutte said the additional expenditure is needed to protect the alliance from different threats – including Russia, a military build-up in China and terrorism – but also to ramp up NATO’s defence industrial production.
“We have to make sure that we spend enough money all over NATO to keep ourselves safe,” he added.
“We need to produce more all over NATO, and particularly when we look at Russia,” he said. “We have to beat them when it comes to defence industrial production.”
The money is also needed “to make sure that Ukraine can prevail and that we can collectively help Ukraine to bring this war to a lasting and durable peace,” Rutte said.
By Doris Pundy
