Gerrmany´s Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel has set the country on collision course with the US at an upcoming Nato summit after he called American demands for more spending by the European members of the military alliance as “completely unrealistic”.
US President Donald Trump had previously called for the Nato allies to uphold a previous agreement to meet a long-term goal of spending two per cent of economic output on defence – a message also backed up by the American Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Mr Tillerson said that the alliance should have “all of the resources, financial and otherwise, that are necessary for Nato to fulfil its mission.”
Mr Gabriel countered those calls by saying there was no such two percent target as such, plus, he argued there was more to security than just military spending. He told reporters in Brussels: “It’s totally unrealistic to believe that Germany would increase its defence spending from €35 billion now to €70bn.
“We respect the two percent guideline — but we should not move the goalposts: it was formulated in Wales [at a 2014 summit] as a guideline and not as a goalpost.”
He added: “We are increasing our defence spending. We are doing more…
Germany spends 1.2 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) on the military last year, up slightly from 1.18 per cent the previous year. Läs artikel