Germany is ready to raise its share of NATO's budget by €5 billion ($5.6 billion) to €47.3 billion this year, German news agency dpa reported Friday.
The increase would amount to 1.35% of gross domestic product (GDP) — still a long way off the 2% target NATO members have set themselves. However, the increase would be the biggest for Germany since the end of the Cold War in 1991.
If confirmed, the move could be seen as a concession to US President Donald Trump, who has been pushing European allies to raise defense spending, and their share of spending on NATO in particular.
At a summit in Wales, UK, in 2014, NATO members agreed to gradually raise defense budgets to 2% of GDP within a decade. Trump has repeatedly singled out Germany, criticizing what the US perceives as insufficient defense spending, while Berlin has pointed out that all members have until 2024 to attempt to reach the target.
At last year's NATO summit, Trump even threatened to leave the alliance if members did not reach the 2% target soon.
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Germany's NATO missions
Germany's role in NATO
West Germany officially joined the trans-Atlantic alliance in 1955. However, it wasn't until after reunification in 1990 that the German government considered "out of area" missions led by NATO. From peacekeeping to deterrence, Germany's Bundeswehr has since been deployed in several countries across the globe in defense of its allies.
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Germany's NATO missions
Bosnia: Germany's first NATO mission
In 1995, Germany participated in its first "out of area" NATO mission as part of a UN-mandated peacekeeping mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina. During the deployment, German soldiers joined other NATO member forces to provide security in the wake of the Bosnian War. The peacekeeping mission included more than 60,000 troops from NATO's member states and partners.
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Germany's NATO missions
Keeping the peace in Kosovo
Since the beginning of the NATO-led peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, some 8,500 German soldiers have been deployed in the young country. In 1999, NATO launched an air assault against Serbian forces accused of carrying out a brutal crackdown against ethnic Albanian separatists and their civilian supporters. Approximately 550 Bundeswehr troops are still stationed in Kosovo.
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Germany's NATO missions
Patrolling the Aegean Sea
In 2016, Germany deployed its combat support ship "Bonn" to lead a NATO mission backed by the EU in the Aegean Sea. The mission included conducting "reconnaissance, monitoring and surveillance of illegal crossings" in Greek and Turkish territorial waters at the height of the migration crisis. Germany, Greece and Turkey had requested assistance from the trans-Atlantic alliance.
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Germany's NATO missions
Nearly two decades in Afghanistan
In 2003, Germany's parliament voted to send Bundeswehr troops to Afghanistan in support of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Germany became the third-largest contributor of troops and led the Regional Command North. More than 50 German troops were killed during the mission. Germany withdrew the last of its troops in June 2021 as part of the US-led exit from Afghanistan.
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Germany's NATO missions
German tanks in Lithuania
Forming part of NATO's "enhanced forward presence" in the Baltic states, 450 Bundeswehr soldiers have been deployed to Lithuania since 2017. The battalion-size battlegroups there are led by Germany, Canada, the UK and US to reinforce collective defense on the alliance's eastern flank. It forms the "biggest reinforcement of Alliance collective defense in a generation," according to NATO.
Author: Lewis Sanders IV
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