German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said her country’s international position required it to become the leading military power in Europe.
“This is due to our size, our geographical and political position, our economic power … In a word, our significance makes us a leading force, whether we like it or not, and in the military field too,” the minister added. .
In particular, the minister pointed out that in the long term, Germany should spend 2% of GDP on defense according to NATO standards, as she quotes her. Financial Times.
Christine Lambrecht announced plans to create three combat-ready divisions by the early 1930s, as well as to ease the tight restrictions on German defense exports so that Berlin could actively participate in European defense projects.
Lambrecht explained that the United States will remain the main force in the defense of Europe, but the increase in tensions between the US and China, the shift in Washington’s attention to the Indo-Pacific region, as well as the situation around Ukraine, require Germany to be ready to defend itself against threats.
She pointed out that Germany’s role in World War II made the population question the role of the German army, as she said Germans were accustomed to the army’s tasks being limited to disaster relief work, facing epidemics, floods and forest fires, and participating in missions in places like Afghanistan and Mali.
“But those days are gone,” she continued.
Lambrecht’s comments came less than two weeks after the German cabinet announced the start of work on a new national security strategy that would, for the first time in modern German history, redefine Berlin’s approach to defense and foreign policy.
In February last year, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced in his speech in the Bundestag that the German army would be allocated 100 billion euros.
Source: Financial Times