The new Prime Minister of the UK, Keir Starmer, has promised to increase the country’s defense spending to 2.5% of its economic output. He noted that this would become possible as soon as “resources allow”.
Currently, 20 of NATO’s 31 members, including France and Germany, still spend less than 2% of their GDP on defense. The UK spends 2.3%, making it the fifth largest defense budget in the world, behind the US, China, Russia and India.
As a result, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius criticized his government for approving less than a 20% increase in the military budget, saying that this is not in line with the country’s goals of increasing investment in the armed forces.
“It means I can’t initiate certain things at the speed that the threat level requires,” Pistorius said.
The German government has determined that defense spending will increase by only €1.2B, to €53.2B, next year, while Pistorius demands an increase of more than €6B.