Reports say this would lift country’s defence spending to 2.1pc of its GDP target, beyond the 2pc pledged by all Nato members
12 November 2023
German chancellor Olaf Scholz’s governing coalition has agreed in principle to double the country’s military aid for Ukraine next year to €8 billion (£7 billion), according to reports.
If approved by parliament, where Mr Scholz’s parties hold a majority, the boost would lift Germany’s defence spending to 2.1 per cent of its gross domestic product target, beyond the 2 per cent pledged by all Nato members, the source added.
Lawmakers of Mr Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Free Democrats and the Green party agreed on the increase in negotiations over the proposed 2024 federal budget ahead of a formal meeting of the budget committee of the Bundestag, lower house of parliament, on Nov 16, a source told Reuters.
Bloomberg News first reported on the news on Saturday, citing people familiar with the matter. A spokesman for Germany’s Ministry of Defence said the Bundestag committee has not finished negotiations and declined to comment further.
German Bild am Sonntag newspaper also said the committee is due to approve the additional €4 billion.
‘Right thing to do’
“Doubling the military spending is both the right thing to do and important,” it quoted member of parliament Andreas Schwarz, who acts as an SPD military budget official, as saying.
“With the move we will underscore our promise to Ukraine with the necessary funds. The fact that we will also be able to fulfil our Nato obligation is a great success of the … coalition,” he was reported as saying.
An EU plan to spend up to €20 billion on military aid for Ukraine is meeting with resistance from member countries, diplomats said this week.
Germany is already Ukraine’s biggest backer in Europe and second only to the US worldwide.
Berlin has channelled more than €17 billion in military aid to Ukraine, according to data tracked by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. This includes Leopard 2 main battle tanks, Marder armoured infantry fighting vehicles, Iris-T and Patriot anti-missile systems, Gepard anti-aircraft guns and multiple-rocket launchers
This is very welcome news without a doubt.
But it is a fraction of what Germany owes to Ukraine. It never paid reparations for WW2; not one penny. The Nazis exterminated two million Ukrainian Jews, Gypsies, gays and disabled; one third of the entire holocaust. A further seven million Ukrainian civilians and and soldiers died. No country in ww2 suffered more. Almost half of all SU losses were Ukrainians.
I’d put the debt owed by Germany to Ukraine at $1 trillion, not $7 billion.
(Russia’s reparations bill to Ukraine should be $2 trillion, but that’s another story).
Apart from WW2, Germany was a prime mover in the blocking of Ukraine’s Nato accession. Instead it concentrated on doing huge business with putler : $70 billion/year in energy alone; easily paying for putler’s war machine.
Rishi has a speech coming up today. The DT reports :
“He will say that Britain will never “lose patience” in backing Ukraine, calling the invasion by Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, a “self-inflicted strategic calamity” that he “cannot win”.
That’s a powerful signal from Germany, especially when considering the falling star of US aid in this regard.
Where is France in all of this? Aren’t their asses being defended by Ukraine, too?!
I did not expect much from Scholz, who comes from the party of Russian agent Schroeder.
In fact it turns out that unlike that other putler agent; Merkel, he has a conscience.
If he will send Taurus, then he can belatedly be regarded as a true friend.
Yes, he’s as stubborn with the Taurus as he was with the Leopards. He’s every bit the coward as Biden. But, he saw that after sending Leopards, there was no invasion of Germany nor a nuclear holocaust. Why he and the others have such fear is beyond me. But, he’s been doing well in giving aid. Germany is number two in this regard, after the US (still).