The percentage required by the military alliance has been reached by the country for the first time in over 30 years. NATO’s Secretary General also announces that 18 members will reach the target by 2024.
(DW) For the first time in three decades, Germany has informed NATO that its planned defense spending will reach at least the equivalent of 2% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the DPA news agency reported on Wednesday (14/02), based on its own investigations.
According to DPA, the German government has announced that it will allocate the equivalent of 73.41 billion dollars (around R$363.6 billion) to defense spending by 2024. This is a record figure for Germany in absolute terms and corresponds to 2.01% of the country’s GDP.
The last time Germany spent the equivalent of 2% of its GDP on defense was in 1992, according to NATO. In the Cold War years, the proportion was usually over 3%.
According to the German Defense Ministry, this extra money will be used to purchase armored vehicles, frigates and combat aircraft. This increase is largely due to the special 100 billion euro fund created in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Increase in other countries
On Wednesday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg detailed the increases in military spending by member countries of the military alliance during a summit in Brussels.
Stoltenberg announced that 18 of the 31 allies will spend at least 2% of their GDP on defense this year – almost double the number of members from last year, 11. “This is a record number and six times higher than in 2014, when only three allies met the target,” he said. According to him, since 2014, investment in defense has increased by 11% and the 31 countries that make up the alliance have invested more than 600 billion euros.
The figures will be announced after the Republican pre-candidate for the US presidency, Donald Trump, threatened that he would even encourage Russia “to do whatever it wants” with those “who don’t pay their bills”.
Trump’s statements caused outrage among the European allies, which make up 29 of NATO’s 31 countries. In Eastern Europe in particular, fears have arisen that the US might not defend its allies in the event of an attack by Russia, which many experts consider possible in the coming years.
When he was US president, Trump openly criticized NATO allies for not raising their defense spending to the 2% agreed by the military alliance at the 2014 summit in Wales.
as/cn (DPA, AFP) *** Translated by DEFCONPress FYI Team ***