Germany commits to NATO spending goal by 2031 for first time

BERLIN: Germany will reach a NATO defence spending target by 2031, its defence minister said, missing a 2024 deadline agreed by the allies who are under heavy US pressure to beef up their military budgets.

"This starts with the defence budget. We need 1.5 per cent by 2024 and 2 per cent by 2031 at the latest," she said, according to quotes of the speech provided by her office, the first time she has publicly committed to the target to an international audience and weeks before the next NATO summit on Dec 4.

Only seven NATO countries currently meet or exceed the 2 per cent target - the United States, Britain, Greece, Poland and the three Baltic states, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. Germany is Europe's biggest economy, and the second biggest in the NATO alliance after the United States.Before Kramp-Karrenbauer, seen as a potential successor to Chancellor Angela Merkel, took up her post this year, Germany's fiscal plans saw defence spending falling slightly to 1.

Germany's earlier reluctance to spend more on defence, in a country that is home to US troops in Europe, has been a sore point for US President Donald Trump, who has openly questioned NATO's continued value to Washington.

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