Germany opposes Trump call to raise NATO defence spending to 5% of GDP

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Thursday opposed President-elect Donald Trump’s proposal for NATO members to increase defense spending to five percent of GDP.

“That’s a lot of money,” Scholz told Focus online. “We have a very clear procedure in NATO” on decision-making, which currently sets defense spending at two percent of GDP.

Scholz said raising defense spending to five percent would total about 200 billion euros ($206 billion) annually, nearly 40 percent of Germany’s 490 billion-euro federal budget.

“Germany would have to find an additional 150 billion euros a year,” Scholz said, advocating instead for NATO’s agreed-upon two-percent target.

He acknowledged, however, that Germany must do more for security. Berlin has nearly doubled its annual defense budget to around 80 billion euros in recent years.

After Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Scholz announced a one-time 100-billion-euro fund to modernize Germany’s armed forces.

At a meeting on Ukraine at the Ramstein airbase, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius also dismissed Trump’s proposal as unrealistic.

“Five percent of GDP would amount to around 40 percent of the federal budget,” Pistorius said. “I don’t know which country can afford that.”

He added that NATO should focus on meeting capability goals rather than percentage-based spending targets.