Germany will reach “as of next year” the goal of investing 2% of its GDP annually in defense, as NATO demands from member countries, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in a speech to the Bundestag on Thursday. (lower house of Parliament) in Berlin. “We will make sure that the federal military finally receives the equipment it needs by again spending 2% of our GDP on defense for the first time in decades, starting next year,” he announced.
Until now, the foreign minister used to indicate the year 2025 as the date to achieve this objective, although the national security strategy document presented last week – the first in the country’s history – already referred to the year 2024 as the compliance horizon. .
Still, Germany still has a long way to go. In 2022, his military spending represented 1.49% of GDP, despite the commitment to create a special fund of 100,000 million euros for the modernization of the Bundeswehr (armed forces), announced in a historic speech by Scholz on the Zeitenwende (turning point), three days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Last year, only seven NATO countries respected the 2% target, including the United States and Poland.
Scholz also promised to promote long-term security guarantees for Ukraine, but dampened Kyiv’s aspirations for early accession to the Atlantic Alliance. “We have to take a sober look at the current situation,” Scholz told German deputies. The Ukrainian government itself admits that the country could not enter NATO as long as the war continues. “I therefore suggest that we focus on the top priority in Vilnius to strengthen Ukraine’s combat capability,” Scholz said, referring to the Alliance’s summit in the Lithuanian capital on July 11-12.
The chancellor assured that Germany, the European Union and the G-7 are working on long-term security guarantees for Kyiv. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hopes that “a very clear message” will be sent during the Vilnius summit that Ukraine will join the Alliance “after the war.”
In this context, the German chancellor urged the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, from the lectern of the Bundestag, to ratify Sweden’s candidacy in NATO before the Vilnius summit. Sweden still lacks the necessary green light from two members, Turkey and Hungary, after Finland did get all the backing to enter, which it did on April 4. Finland thus became the 31st member of the Alliance.
“I strongly believe that, in addition to Finland, Sweden should also sit at the summit table as a new ally. And I appeal to the re-elected Turkish President Erdogan to pave the way for this, as we all decided together last year,” the foreign minister said.
Scholz’s speech to the plenary session of the Bundestag was held as orientation for the next European Council in Brussels on June 29 and 30. “The national security strategy indicates to our European and international friends and allies: Germany can be trusted,” he said, referring to the document presented last week. “We act in a coordinated manner at a European and international level. And in this framework, we take more responsibility for the security of Europe, ”he concluded.