Germany Wants Change to NATO's Two-Percent Budget Goal
BERLIN (AFP) - Germany's defence minister called Friday for changes to the way NATO members' commitments to budget targets are assessed, in the face of bigger demands from U.S. President Donald Trump.
Just ahead of the first face-to-face talks between Chancellor Angela Merkel and Trump, the minister, Ursula von der Leyen, told AFP that the NATO target of spending two percent of GDP on defence painted an incomplete picture of actual contributions.
Von der Leyen proposed using an "activity index" that would take participation in foreign missions into account when assessing budget earmarks for defence.
Trump caused dismay in Europe when he said on the campaign trail that NATO was "obsolete" and failing to meet the challenge posed by Islamic terror groups.
His administration has repeatedly pressed the allies to meet a pledge to spend two percent of GDP annually on defense by 2024.
NATO leaders, urged by then U.S. president Barack Obama, agreed the two-percent target in 2014 and reaffirmed it at a 2016 Warsaw summit to counter a more assertive Russia.
The NATO annual report said only five countries met the two-percent target -- the United States, Britain, Greece, Poland and Estonia -- while Washington still accounted for nearly 70 percent of combined alliance defense spending.
Germany, whose militaristic past has led it traditionally to be reticent on defense matters, currently, spends 1.2 percent of GDP.
An increase to two percent would put Berlin's defense budget on a par with Russia's at around 65 billion euros ($70 billion) and is politically controversial as the country heads toward a September general election.
Just ahead of the first face-to-face talks between Chancellor Angela Merkel and Trump, the minister, Ursula von der Leyen, told AFP that the NATO target of spending two percent of GDP on defence painted an incomplete picture of actual contributions.
Von der Leyen proposed using an "activity index" that would take participation in foreign missions into account when assessing budget earmarks for defence.
Trump caused dismay in Europe when he said on the campaign trail that NATO was "obsolete" and failing to meet the challenge posed by Islamic terror groups.
His administration has repeatedly pressed the allies to meet a pledge to spend two percent of GDP annually on defense by 2024.
NATO leaders, urged by then U.S. president Barack Obama, agreed the two-percent target in 2014 and reaffirmed it at a 2016 Warsaw summit to counter a more assertive Russia.
The NATO annual report said only five countries met the two-percent target -- the United States, Britain, Greece, Poland and Estonia -- while Washington still accounted for nearly 70 percent of combined alliance defense spending.
Germany, whose militaristic past has led it traditionally to be reticent on defense matters, currently, spends 1.2 percent of GDP.
An increase to two percent would put Berlin's defense budget on a par with Russia's at around 65 billion euros ($70 billion) and is politically controversial as the country heads toward a September general election.