MOSCOW, September 8 (RIA Novosti) – Berlin will neither increase its military spending at the request of NATO on account of the crises in Ukraine and Iraq, nor decrease it, German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen said in an interview with ARD.
“Currently, the Bundeswehr is well equipped and is fully prepared for participation in military actions”, Germany’s Spiegel quoted von der Leyen as saying. According to the defense minister, Germany’s military budget currently stands at 1.3 percent of the GDP, whose number, according to von der Leyen, should not fall. She also claimed Germany would not comply with NATO’s demands to increase military spending up to 2 percent of the country’s GDP.
According to von der Leyen, “the ultimate goal of the FRG is a consolidated budget, while a healthy state financial system and a healthy economy will contribute to the military spending in the long run”, Spiegel reports.
Spiegel also reports that von der Leyen is set to consult the Bundestag about the country’s military spending as well as a number of other key issues, including the crisis in Iraq, following the close of the NATO summit in Wales last week.
In the meantime, SPD Faction Leader Thomas Oppermann, in a conversation with Spiegel, stated that he does not see any need in boosting the country’s military spending.
“I see neither financial scope for a military spending increase, nor any necessity for it. Right now, the [military] budget is not yet exhausted. It is the duty of Defense Minister to make effective use of these funds.”
Earlier, during the concluding press conference of the NATO summit, the secretary general of the alliance, Anders Fogh Rasmussen stated that NATO member-countries should increase rather than reduce their military spending “at times of unstable peace” and demanded that they spend no less that 2 percent of their GDPs on military requirements. At present, only the United States, Great Britain and Estonia completely fulfill this requirement.
