Stick to defence spending pledge, Nato chief tells Germany

BRUSSELS: Germany must honour its own promises on defence spending, Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg insisted, as the alliance prepares to mark its 70th anniversary amid unprecedented tensions with Washington.

Nato foreign ministers meet in the US capital this week for a lowkey celebration of the alliance’s 1949 founding treaty, with US complaints over weak European military spending firmly on the agenda.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly accused Nato allies – and economic powerhouse Germany in particular – of freeloading on America’s military muscle and reportedly threatened to ‘go it alone’ if Europe does not step up.

All Nato allies agreed to move towards spending two percent of GDP on defence by 2024, but last month Berlin announced that its own figure was set to fall in the coming years, from 1.37 per cent in 2020 to just 1.25 per cent in 2023.

The news infuriated Washington, and Stoltenberg said Berlin must live up to commitments it had signed up to at a summit in 2014.

“I expect Germany to make good on the pledge Germany made together with all other Nato allies,” Stoltenberg told reporters.

“I expect them to meet spending commitments, and they have submitted to Nato a national plan where they outline how Germany will increase defence spending in real terms by 80 per cent over a decade.”

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, speaking in New York ahead of the Nato meeting, said that Berlin had already boosted defence spending by almost 40 per cent since 2014 and was one of the alliance’s top troop contributors.

“We are grateful for our partnership within Nato, which has enabled us Europeans to enjoy security, stability and prosperity over the last 70 years,” he told the American Council on Germany.

“But public debates about burden- sharing in Nato are generating uncertainty – at a time when Russia is trying to test our unity again and again,” he said.

“Europeans know that we need to assume greater responsibility for our security.

It lies in our own interest.” — AFP