Scholz spoke out against Trump’s 5% NATO defence spending target

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has spoken out against US President-elect Donald Trump’s demand to increase defence spending by NATO members to 5 percent of their GDP, TASS reports

photo: www.reuters.com

According to Focus-online, the German Chancellor pointed out that 5 percent of the country’s GDP would mean spending 200bn Euros a year. At the same time, Germany’s budget currently stands at around 490bn Euros, the Head of Government said. “This is a lot of money, and in reality it means that we would have to resort to either savings of around 150bn, or debt of 150bn, or a combination of all of these,” Scholz noted.

The politician added that he believes it is better to concentrate on a path that has long been agreed upon in NATO.