The percentage requested by the military alliance is achieved by the country for the first time in more than 30 years. The NATO Secretary General also announces that 18 members will reach the target by 2024. 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 product gross domestic product (GDP). the DPA news agency reported this Wednesday (14/02), based on its own investigations.
According to the DPA, the German government has announced that it will allocate the equivalent of 73.41 billion dollars (about R$363.6 billion) for defense spending in 2024. This is a record amount for Germany in in absolute terms and corresponds to 2.01% of the country’s GDP. .
According to NATO information, the last time Germany spent the equivalent of 2% of its GDP on defense was in 1992. In the Cold War years the percentage was generally above 3%.
According to the German Ministry of Defense, these additional funds will be used to purchase vehicles, frigates and fighter planes. This strengthening is largely due to the €100 billion special fund created in response to Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Increase in other countries
On Wednesday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg detailed 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 last year’s number of members, 11. “This is a record number and six times higher than in 2014, when only three allies met the objective,” he stressed. According to him, since 2014, investments in defense have increased by 11% and the 31 countries that make up the alliance have invested more than 600 billion euros.
The numbers will be announced after US Republican presidential candidate 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 sparked outrage among European allies, who represent 29 of NATO’s 31 countries. Especially in Eastern Europe there are fears that the United States will not be able to defend its allies in the event of an attack by Russia, which many experts believe is possible in the coming years.
When he was US president, Trump openly criticized NATO allies for failing to increase their defense spending to the 2% rate agreed upon by the military alliance at a 2014 summit in Wales.
as/cn (DPA, AFP)
Source: Terra
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