Germany's defense chief said last week that the Bundeswehr needs approximately 6.5 billion euros ($7.1 billion) more than earmarked for 2025. A separate news report revealed that over 99% of the 100-billion-euro fund allocated for the Bundeswehr has already been utilized or allocated.
Pistorius is seeking a substantial hike in the 2025 defense budget during the upcoming budget discussions with German Federal Finance Minister, Christian Lindner, according to the report released on Wednesday.
During a closed-door meeting with the Green Party on Tuesday, the German defense minister reiterated that the planned 52 billion euros for next year's defense budget is not enough to continue rearming the Bundeswehr.
The Bundeswehr will face a "rearmament halt" without a significant hike in defense spending, Der Spiegel cited Pistorius as telling the meeting.
On January 31, the German Defense Ministry said that Berlin would meet NATO's defense spending target of 2% of national GDP in 2024 for the first time since the early 1990s.
In June 2022, the German parliament backed Chancellor Olaf Scholz's initiative to create a special fund for the Bundeswehr worth 100 billion euros so that the German armed forces could be considered the largest regular army in Europe after modernization. Scholz cited the onset of the Ukraine conflict as the reason for the investments, describing it as a turning point in the security situation in Europe.