Germany is considered one of the leading nations for the protection of NATO’s eastern flank. For this, three NATO countries now want to work more closely together.
Germany, Great Britain and Canada are striving for closer cooperation to protect the three Baltic NATO partners Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. According to Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, for example, exercises should be better coordinated. Better coordination also has a greater deterrent effect, the SPD politician explained on Wednesday at the sidelines of a NATO defense ministers’ meeting in Brussels.
According to Pistorius, all six countries agreed on a paper on the subject on Tuesday evening. It’s about how to protect the Baltic States particularly effectively as a particularly exposed part of the alliance, he said.
Pistorius is in favor of a two percent target as a basis for NATO countries
Pistorius also advocated increased defense spending by NATO countries. “Just wanting to get closer to the two percent target will not be enough,” said Pistorius on Wednesday on the sidelines of the NATO defense ministers’ meeting in Brussels. “It has to be the basis for everything else.”
Pistorius was alluding to NATO’s current goal. This envisages that by 2024 all allied countries should approach the benchmark of spending at least two percent of their GDP on defense. Talks are currently being held in NATO about the future goal. An agreement should be reached at the latest at the next regular summit. It will be organized in Lithuania’s capital Vilnius on July 11th and 12th.
The federal government is still negotiating the German position
As things stand today, tightening the two percent target would require an increase in German defense spending by an amount in the double-digit billions. So far, Germany has spent significantly less than two percent of GDP on defense. According to available public figures, only a rate of 1.44 percent was expected for 2022 – based on defense spending according to the NATO standard of 55.6 billion euros.
On the question of whether his position is the German position for the NATO negotiations, Pistorius said: “We are in the federal government in the vote on it and will certainly conclude it soon.”
Along with Great Britain and Canada, Germany is one of the leading NATO nations on the eastern flank. The Bundeswehr is primarily present in Lithuania, where it also leads a multinational battle group.
Pistorius considers the discussion about general conscription “valuable”
At the national level, Pistorius continues to see good arguments for general compulsory service in Germany to strengthen civil protection, the German armed forces and rescue services. In order to form a political opinion on this issue, however, the voices of younger people must be heard, said the SPD politician to the German Press Agency in Berlin. “I expressly did not speak out for the reactivation of conscription,” he emphasized. Rather, he considers the discussion about a general obligation to serve “valuable”.
As a 62-year-old, he was reluctant “to burden a generation that already has a difficult future ahead of it with general service,” said Pistorius. “What would speak for it from my point of view? In the past few months, the impression has arisen that some do not have the necessary appreciation for the fire brigade and Red Cross, police and armed forces. The general obligation to serve could help bring people and state organizations a little closer bring together,” he said. “It could show how important these institutions are for the functioning of our society.”
