BERLIN: Germany met NATO’s target to spend 2% of its gross domestic product on defence in 2024, the government said on Monday, though well short of incoming US President Donald Trump’s call for as much as 5%.
Under Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s centre-left government, Germany has ramped up military spending since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, both to supply weapons to Kyiv and revamp its own armed forces.
But Germany, Europe’s largest economy, has grappled with budgetary constraints, clouding prospects for further longer-term military funding commitments.
Trump, who was to be inaugurated as president later on Monday, recently said members of the NATO military alliance should even spend 5% of GDP on defence – which would be a huge increase from the current goal and a level that no NATO country, including the United States, currently reaches.
Trump cut defence funding to NATO during the latter part of his first term in 2017-21, and has frequently complained that the US is paying more than its fair share.
He has vowed to ask Europe to reimburse the US for “almost $200 billion” in munitions sent to Ukraine, and has not committed to sending further aid to Kyiv.
Reuters earlier cited German finance ministry sources as saying Germany met the NATO target last year.
The NATO quota will be met, even though 4.3 billion euros of the funds available in 2024 were not used, a Defence Ministry spokesperson said on Monday.
In total, 90.8 billion euros had been available, which would have corresponded to a NATO quota of 2.1% of economic output.
Details on all expenses that were counted towards the NATO goal will be published in February, finance ministry sources said.
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