Germany finally stop their military rot: promising to keep defense spending above NATO’s 2% GDP requirement

Germany, one of the country specifically called out by former US President Donald Trump, for failing to meet NATO requirement of annual defense spending of at least 2% of the GDP, has finally committed officially to keep it’s defense spending over 2% of GDP immediately.

This is the most significant shift in Germany’s policy when come to their mindset on their military and defense needs, as Germany perpetually underspend on their military since the end of the Cold War. As you can see from the graph above, defense spending hardly break 1.2% of the GDP annually since 2008.

Trump demands other NATO members pay their fair share

Just in case any NATO members hadn’t gotten the message, U.S. President Donald Trump said it once again Tuesday night: You need to pay up. The Republican president, in his speech before a joint session of Congress, held firm to demands that other countries in the decades-old military alliance must spend more on defense and not simply count on the United States to cover for them.

After being called out by Trump in 2017 and subsequent threats to quit NATO should all the major NATO powers refuse to increase their defense spending, Germany set a target of getting to 2% of the GDP by 2024. In 2017, that also means that Germany had to double it’s defense spending to 70 billion Euros in the space of 7 years.

When Trump was “making his allies upset”, only 5 members of the military alliance spent above 2%: the United States, United Kingdom, Greece, Poland and Estonia. After getting upset by Trump, the number of countries in NATO meeting the 2% “aspiration” went to up to 10: Croatia, France, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania met the challenge. Average GDP on defense across all European members of NATO went from just 1.3% in 2014 to 1.76% in 2021.

German defence spending: Gewehre versus Butter | The Strategist

In March, President Trump claimed that Germany owed ‘ vast sums of money ‘ to the US and NATO for failing to meet NATO’s aspirational (but not enforced) defence spending standard of at least 2% of GDP.

The state of readiness and lack of budget in the German military had prompted many serious criticism. Kyle Mizokami of National Interest wrote: “It is as if Berlin has given up any serious commitment to its own security. The military is small and underfunded to a shocking degree.”

Why Is Germany’s Military Weak?

Key point : It is as if Berlin has given up any serious commitment to its own security. The military is small and underfunded to a shocking degree. The modern German armed forces, or Bundeswehr, were created just ten years after the end of World War II.

In the same article, he wrote that the end of Cold War and declining defense budgets caused Germany to shed nearly 90% of it’s tank force. As of the time of his article was published, there were only 225 Leopard II tanks in Germany’s arsenal.

To know how little tanks this is, we just has to compare it to the island nation and city state of Singapore: Singapore Army possesses more than 204 Leopard 2SG, in a country that is 50 square miles smaller than Berlin. What Germany possesses is absolutely inadequate for the security situation thats facing Europe now. According the Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, Russia had lost 146 tanks in just first 3 days of war in Ukraine.

Germany commits 100 billion euros to new armed forces fund

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says Germany is committing 100 billion euros to a special fund for its armed forces, raising its defense spending above 2 percent of GDP BERLIN — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Sunday that Germany is committing 100 billion euros to a special fund for its armed forces, raising its defense spending above 2 percent of GDP.

“It’s clear we need to invest significantly more in the security of our country, in order to protect our freedom and our democracy,”

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told a special session of the Bundestag in Berlin.

On top of the German commitment to spend at least 2% on defense annually, Scholz also announces a one-time fund of 100 billion euro (113 billion USD) to a special armed forces fund. It is not clear to DPA what is this fund meant to be spent on.

The sudden sharp escalation of Russian aggression through the invasion of Ukraine definitely woke up the slumbering Germany and marks the start of a new era in European geopolitics.