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Ahead of NATO Summit, Germany Once Again Shirking Defense Commitments

Posted on Saturday, July 8, 2023
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by Ben Solis
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12 Comments
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AMAC Exclusive – By Ben Solis

NATO

As President Joe Biden heads overseas for a NATO Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, next week, one topic defense and foreign policy experts will be anxiously awaiting news on is whether or not Biden will demand accountability from German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on his country’s repeated failure to meet its defense spending commitments. If the past two years are any indication, however, Scholz has nothing to worry about.

Biden and Scholz have appeared to develop an especially close bond in recent months, including Scholz taking the unusual step of endorsing Biden over former President Donald Trump in his re-election bid. The German chancellor also phoned Biden on July 4 to discuss “a range of issues” ahead of the NATO Summit.

It was unclear from the readout of the call whether or not one of those issues will be Germany’s continued shortfall in meeting its NATO defense spending goal of 2 percent of the country’s $4.2 trillion GDP. This year, Germany is expected to fall more than $18.5 billion short of that benchmark, even as other NATO countries ramp up their spending to meet the threat of Russian aggression in Ukraine.

NATO members first agreed to the 2 percent GDP goal in 2014, with all countries expected to increase defense spending to that point by next year. In 2022, just seven of 30 NATO member countries met the requirement, and just 11 are expected to hit the target this year.

The U.S. currently spends nearly 3.5 percent of its GDP on defense. The NATO leader in defense spending relative to GDP is Poland, which recently more than doubled its defense spending to nearly 4.5 percent.

Germany’s failure to meet its targets is particularly concerning as it is by far the largest economy in Europe and thus, in terms of dollars, plays an outsize role in Europe’s overall defense posture.

Former President Donald Trump was quick to recognize this glaring issue and wasted no time upon taking office to expose Germany as the most stingy NATO contributor, with defense spending often falling below 1.5 percent of Germany’s GDP. Though prior U.S. presidents had quietly complained about the failure of U.S. allies to meet their commitments, Trump bluntly and publicly made clear that Germany’s freeriding was costing American taxpayers, thrusting the issue to the forefront of the foreign policy conversation.

Trump’s critique proved prescient as Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine. European leaders saw that the war had revealed previously unseen vulnerabilities in Europe’s security system, and even the greatest optimists began to look at Russia with concern.

Germany too pledged to boost its defense spending. Scholz declared that Germany would put the 2 percent goal “in writing,” and created a special fund of roughly $108 billion to raise military spending.

However, those public promises have failed to materialize into long-term results. The special fund remains largely untouched, as does military spending. Following the Russian invasion, the German defense budget actually shrunk, following the tradition of cuts initiated by Chancellor Gerhard Schroder in the early 2000s.

Even with the special fund, Germany is expected to miss its 2 percent target until at least 2027, at which point defense spending will fall back below 1.2 percent of GDP unless the German government takes drastic action.

A report from the German Parliament, or Bundestag, in 2019 paints an alarming picture of the state of readiness of the German military. Troops said they lacked boots, clothing, modern helmets, night vision devices, and protective vests.

Another report from 2023 found that Germany is devoting only 20 percent of the necessary resources to funding new projects, including the procurement of new weapons. Former German Defense Minister Rupert Scholz called the report “catastrophic,” saying that “the entire defense capability of the federal republic is suffering, which is irresponsible.”

Germany is also lacking in manpower, with just 178,000 active-duty personnel. Italy, which has more than 22 million fewer people than Germany, has a fighting force of 183,000.

Meanwhile, it is U.S. taxpayers that have picked up the tab for Germany’s shortfall. There are nearly 40,000 U.S. troops in Germany, infusing billions into the German economy.

Berlin has also been reluctant to back Ukraine with weapons and ammunition, again leaving most of the burden to the United States and other NATO members. In another development that proved former President Donald Trump exactly right, Germany faced a major crisis early in the war as Russia threatened to cut off energy supplies to German cities.

Instead of established economic powerhouses like Germany, it is new NATO members who joined the alliance after the Cold War – which largely make up what former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called “New Europe” – who are leading the way. Along with Poland, most of these nations like Finland are spending well over 2 percent of their GDP on defense. These countries have also stepped up to come to the aid of Ukraine in its war against Russia.

Throughout all of this, President Biden has taken a remarkably relaxed attitude toward Berlin – an approach that could not be more different from his predecessor. But this enabling of Germany to avoid its defense commitments is likely to continue to yield disastrous results, at the expense of not just Germany, but the entire Western alliance.

Ben Solis is the pen name of an international affairs journalist, historian, and researcher.

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Paul Sergent
Paul Sergent
1 year ago

I am not completely sure what can be done to force Germany to pay their part. But if Germany doesn’t want to step up then I think it’s far past time to shift our military forces from Germany to the New Europe and station them in places like Poland and Finland ( and others too).
Germany has been making billions of dollars each year off the backs of our military stationed there. Germany made out like fat rats during the draw down. During the draw down Germany charged the US it’s bases that we had built. For example, there were military sites & bases that the US occupied and due to the drawdown they were no longer needed and needed to be closed. The US wasn’t going to use them anymore. For example, Hahn AFB was one of those bases that closed during the drawdown in the 1990s.
Before accepting the housing, barracks, and runway (that the US paid for & built) Germany charged the US billions to shore up and repair them before accepting the AFB. That’s right! The US had to repair everything and put back everything to 100%. That meant that everything needed to be in tip top shape (that we paid for to begin with) before Germany took it back over! (Their own land). How greedy can a country be.
Let’s not forget history: Germany tried to take over the world and the US intervened and stopped them and then we went back after the war in World War 2 and helped them rebuild their country. I can tell you that when I and my wife lived in Germany (in the 1990s) we experienced most of the older generation as being nice and friendly to us (not all though) but the younger generation held neo Nazi (called Skinheads) demonstrations outside of the fates of military installations. There were a lot of road rage and dirty looks if hatred by the younger generation. That generation is now running their country.
If they don’t want to step up and pay their portion then I think the US needs to move our people out of their country and into other European countries nearby.
Why keep our forces placed specially right there in Germany?
Why keep allowing Germany to keep making money each year off the backs of our personnel? Each year Germany’s economy is benefiting from all the billions of dollars spent by the US and it’s military stationed there. That money bolsters their economy and they don’t want to pay their part?
I think it’s far past time to let someone like Poland be the main country where we are stationed at. Let that economy reap the benefits and rewards by our armed forces being stationed there. Not Germany!
It’s time to adjust our armed forces in Europe. The new Europe.

Max
Max
1 year ago

Overall, most NATO members DO NOT PROVIDE ENOUGH FUNDS TO THE ORGANIZATION. The USA provides most of the funds for the budget.

FJB
FJB
1 year ago

We (the US) need to pull out of NATO. NATO exists for one purpose only and that is to defend Europe. The US gets absolutely no benefit from NATO at a tremendous cost to the US taxpayer. The only so called benefits we get are access to bases etc… which again, are to defend Europe. The rest of the NATO countries combined have more people and wealth than the US and have been freeloading off of us for far too long. If the US was attacked does anyone really believe that NATO would come to our aid (maybe the UK would) or that we would even need the help? If NATO Europe was attacked, as usual, we would be doing the bulk of the fighting.

Greg
Greg
1 year ago

What incentive does Germany have to pay their fair share? They know that the U.S. is stepping up big time, as usual, in the defense of Europe while also contributing immensely to their economy. They aren’t stupid, but we sure are.

nate
nate
1 year ago

I read that only 7 of the 31 NATO countries are paying their allotted share. USA are treated as chumps yet again.

Karen Knowles
Karen Knowles
1 year ago

Germany needs to get with the program!

Jerry
Jerry
1 year ago

We need to be careful about what we wish for, we will probably have to fight the Germans again one day and this time we are unlikely to win.

anna hubert
anna hubert
1 year ago

Don’t want to pay, play by yourself. Or they are trying to be kissing cousins with Vladimir

Jeri
Jeri
1 year ago

Someone somewhere expecting something different?

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