Antalya [Turkey], May 16: German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul on Thursday backed US President Donald Trump's demands for NATO members to spend 5% of their economic output on defence, prompting Defence Minister Boris Pistorius to urge caution.
Wadepuhl said he agreed with Trump's assessment that the drastic increase was necessary, after his first meeting with US 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% of gross domestic product (GDP) on defence at the upcoming NATO summit in June. Currently, NATO members are committed to spending at least 2% of GDP on military expenditure, although not all have achieved the goal.
At his meeting with Rubio, Wadephul said he had made it clear that Germany was prepared to "take a leading role in Europe, set an example and call on others to follow [it]." However, Wadephul made it clear that traditional defence spending of 3.5% of gross domestic product (GDP) would be sufficient, provided than an additional 1.5% was spent on military infrastructure - an approach recently proposed by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
Pistorius later responded cautiously to Wadephul's remarks. "The percentage is not so important. What is important is that the NATO capability targets that are then set are met quickly, comprehensively and on time," he said at a meeting with his British counterpart John Healey.
Pistorius said talks about increasing the target to 3% or more were likely.
He expressed dissatisfaction at Wadephul's comments. "I am pleased about the very, very good start I had and continue to have with my foreign minister colleague Jo Wadephul," Pistorius said. "At the same time, he knows as well as I do that the defence budget is set out in Section 14, which is my department." Germany is currently spending just over 2% of its GDP on defence.
Source: Qatar Tribune
