Frankfurt (Germany), July 6 (LaPresse) – German Chancellor Friedrich Merz defended Germany’s increase in defence spending in a phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday ahead of the NATO summit opening tomorrow in Ankara. According to sources in the federal government, Merz explained to the American president the significant increase in the defence budget, stressing that the figures used by Trump in a recent message published on Truth Social to criticise the contributions of European allies are not up to date. Last week, the U.S. president described the military spending of Germany, the United Kingdom and Italy as “ridiculous”. At the Alliance summit, Merz intends to highlight that Berlin will double defence spending over the next four years. “It is the greatest effort we have ever made to strengthen our defence capability,” the chancellor said on Friday, adding that Germany “has no reason to hide from anyone”. At the Hague summit last year, at the initiative of the United States, NATO countries agreed to allocate at least 3.5% of GDP to defence by 2035, in addition to a further 1.5% for security-related investments, such as infrastructure, for a total of 5% of gross domestic product. Germany aims to reach this target as early as 2029. According to the federal government, over the past twelve months Berlin has increased defence spending by around 25 billion euros, bringing it to 124 billion euros.
NATO, Merz defends with Trump the increase in German military spending
Frankfurt (Germany), July 6 (LaPresse) – German Chancellor Friedrich Merz defended Germany’s increase in defence spending in a phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday ahead of the NATO summit opening tomorrow in Ankara. According to sources in the federal government, Merz explained to the American president the significant increase in the defence budget, stressing that the figures used by Trump in a recent message published on Truth Social to criticise the contributions of European allies are not up to date. Last week, the U.S. president described the military spending of Germany, the United Kingdom and Italy as “ridiculous”. At the Alliance summit, Merz intends to highlight that Berlin will double defence spending over the next four years. “It is the greatest effort we have ever made to strengthen our defence capability,” the chancellor said on Friday, adding that Germany “has no reason to hide from anyone”. At the Hague summit last year, at the initiative of the United States, NATO countries agreed to allocate at least 3.5% of GDP to defence by 2035, in addition to a further 1.5% for security-related investments, such as infrastructure, for a total of 5% of gross domestic product. Germany aims to reach this target as early as 2029. According to the federal government, over the past twelve months Berlin has increased defence spending by around 25 billion euros, bringing it to 124 billion euros.
