Merkel ‘Follows US Orders' by Stepping Up Germany's Defense Budget

NATO is pushing for defense budget increases among its member states, as well as the deployment of NATO military forces in Europe; this is largely aimed at confrontation with Russia, German Economic News (DWN) wrote.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel approved the federal government plans to increase the country's defense budget, the newspaper wrote.

Merkel did not specify what exactly this money will be spend for; however, taking into account the fact that Germany subscribes to NATO's military doctrine, such activities may be directed against Russia, the article said.

According to the newspaper, the move was approved by the German Chancellor as result of US pressure.

"We have to make a reasonable, high-quality contribution so that the others — on both sides of the Atlantic — would be ready to join us," Merkel said.

According to DWN, this statement showed that Germany is unable to organize its defense spending without coordination with Washington.

Thus, the decision of the German government is directly related to the demands of the US, which has repeatedly asked all NATO partners to increase their military budgets to 2% of GDP.

To achieve this goal, Germany will have to increase defense spending by 25 billion euros, the newspaper concluded.