German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul on Thursday said he backs U.S President Donald Trump’s demands for NATO members to spend 5 per cent of their economic output on defence.
Wadepuhl said he agreed with Trump’s assessment that the drastic increase was necessary, after meeting with U.S. 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 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) on defence at the upcoming NATO summit in June.
Currently, NATO members are committed to spending at least 2 per cent of GDP on military expenditure, although not all have achieved the goal.
Germany is currently spending just over 2 per cent 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 Euros (50.5 billion dollars) 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 per cent of GDP, with an additional 1.5 per cent 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 per cent to be achieved in a year or two.
Achieving the new target would also be a financial effort for the U.S.
“We have to think about what we can do to make sure that we have all the defence-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.
