MOSCOW (Sputnik) — France has resources necessary to achieve its goals, including defense spending, which so far has been lower than the 2 percent minimum required by NATO, French President Francois Hollande said Wednesday.
France needs to increase its defense spending to the 2 percent of GDP, since the French military needs to be on high alert in the war against terror, Chief of Staff of the French Armed Forces Gen. Pierre de Villiers said in a statement published by Les Echos newspaper on Tuesday.
"Today we have the resources necessary to reach our goals, but in the years to come we will have to make additional effort," Hollande said, as quoted by Les Echos, in response to Villiers.
The president added that the military expenditure had been repeatedly increased throughout the last five years.
According to NATO figures, France currently spends 1.78 percent of its GDP on defense.
Europe has been struck by a number of terror attacks over the last years, with the most recent one occurring on Monday in Berlin, where a truck rammed into a crowd at a Christmas market.
