Germany will raise its military budget, because “we cannot trust Washington as before” and because of the need to build a European defense coalition, not due to US pressure, its Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said in an article published by newspaper
Handelsblatt.
Writing in the Singapore-based Lianhe Zaobao, Li Gang, assistant researcher at the Center of Economic Diplomacy at Wuhan University, argued that both pressure from the Trump administration and Germany's desire to build a defense coalition are contributing factors.
NATO has required member states to invest two percent of their GDP in military spending since 2014. US President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized Germany for failing that target. Maas’s article shows that Germany would prefer to establish an independent European defense coalition to win American respect rather than be forced to increase its military budget, Li said.
But building a defense coalition will be even more costly, he noted. The continent’s largest economy, Germany would commit more resources in the effort than otherwise required by the NATO target. The country is set to increase that budget, and is choosing a better way to present it, he claimed.
German politicians acknowledge the country’s military capabilities have been dwindling since the end of the Cold War - its national defense army dropped from nearly 600,000 in the early 1990s to 180,000 in 2017. On the other hand, it currently has a military budget incommensurate with its status as the world’s fourth-largest economy, Li said, citing that the US invests 3.4 percent of its GDP in military, Russia 5.3 percent and Germany merely 1.24 percent. Merkel said the country must raise its military budget to a level matching its status as an European leader.
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