German Chancellor Olaf Scholz today rejected the demand of future US President Donald Trump that Germany and other NATO member states spend 5% of their gross domestic product (GDP) on defense, DPA reported, quoted by BTA.
"Five percent would be over 200 billion euros ($204 billion) a year, and the federal budget is not even 500 billion. "This would only be possible through a large tax increase or huge cuts in things that are very important to us," the German chancellor stressed. Scholz added that Germany would stick to NATO's current spending target of at least 2 percent of GDP. Last year, Berlin reached that figure for the first time since the end of the Cold War. NATO set the 2 percent target in 2014. The German chancellor also said he was against increasing arms supplies to Ukraine if that meant cutting other budget items. "I'm against taking it from pensions, I'm against cutting it through local government, I'm against investing less money in railways and roads," Scholz said. "So you have to fund this additionally", he added.