Merkel Urges to Boost Defense Spending Ahead of NATO Summit

© REUTERS / Hannibal HanschkeGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg attend a news conference following talks at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, June 2, 2016.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg attend a news conference following talks at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, June 2, 2016. - Sputnik International
Subscribe
Chancellor Angela Merkel said Germany should increase military spending instead of expecting allies to bear the burden of defending Europe, according to local media.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Germany currently spends 1.2 percent of its gross domestic product on the military, while some other NATO members spend up to 3.4 percent of their GDP on defense, Merkel said at her party’s economic meeting in Berlin.

"It will not go well in the long run if we say that we hope and expect others to carry the defense burden for us," Merkel said late Tuesday, as quoted by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

NATO expects member states to spend 2 percent of the GDP on defense. In the past years, German defense expenditure shrank to 1.2 percent from 1.4 percent of the GDP. This will likely be a major topic at the upcoming NATO summit in Warsaw in early July.

Newsfeed
0
To participate in the discussion
log in or register
loader
Chats
Заголовок открываемого материала