NATO's Response to Putin's Moves: A Steep Upscaling of Defense Capabilities
Enhancing Defensive Capabilities: NATO's Plan of Action
Brussels - With the looming specter of Russia, NATO aims to beef up its military muscle by a significant margin for deterrence and defense purposes. "We need extra resources, troops, and capabilities to stay battle-ready and fully implement our defensive strategies," NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte stated before a defense ministers' meeting in Brussels on Thursday. Top priorities include air and missile defense, long-range weapon systems, logistics, and large land force formations.
According to reports from the German Press Agency, the existing military capability targets are set for an approximately 30 percent boost. To reach these goals, Germany, alongside other member states, will be assigned new national planning targets, which are due to be officially endorsed at the defense ministers' meeting.
The new targets pose a formidable challenge, given that the current ones are far from being realized. High-ranking military officials have recently sounded the alarm about a 30 percent gap.
Classified Plans Shrouded in Secrecy
The concrete details regarding the new national planning targets remain top secret. However, it is expected that some information will be disclosed to the public after the defense ministers adopt the targets.
For Germany, military officials predict that the Bundeswehr, currently at around 182,000 soldiers, would need a substantial increase if the country is to meet its assigned planning targets. Significant investments in new air defense systems, for example, are expected to be necessary.
Allies Facing Hefty Investments
The deficits and new planning targets also suggest a planned increase in defense spending. All NATO members are set to commit, at the upcoming summit, to investing at least 3.5 percent of their GDP in defense in the future. This could then be followed by an additional 1.5 percent of GDP for defense-relevant expenditures, like infrastructure, amounting to the demanded 5 percent target by US President Donald Trump.
According to German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, the share of defense spending in Germany's economic output is set to increase by 0.2 percentage points per year, stretching over a period of five to seven years. From last year's 2.1 percent, this could result in a quota of 3.5 percent by 2032.
According to Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU), each additional percentage point for Germany currently translates to approximately an additional 45 billion euros in defense spending. With a total of 5 percent, this would currently require annual expenditures of 225 billion euros. For reference, the federal budget totaled around 466 billion euros last year.
Trump Pressing for a Shift in Burden-Sharing
The plans are based on the assessment of intelligence services that Russia could be gearing up for further military aggressions in Europe in as little as three to five years, despite the ongoing war against Ukraine. Both the new national planning targets for defense capabilities and the new quota are also intended to address the US demand for a more balanced burden-sharing within the alliance. Unlike most other alliance states, the United States has been spending significantly more than 3 percent of its economic output on defense for many years.
Trump has made it clear that, in the future, Europeans should shoulder much more responsibility for security on their continent. Ideally, they should provide all conventional defense capabilities themselves. The U.S. would then only need to guarantee nuclear deterrence in Europe. NATO Secretary-General Rutte acknowledged that the U.S. rightly expects allies to significantly increase their spending. NATO must become not only a stronger and more powerful alliance, but also a fairer one.
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- In response to Putin's moves and escalating war-and-conflicts, NATO is considering a significant increase in policy-and-legislation, bolstering defense capabilities and perhaps implementing new national planning targets that could potentially necessitate an increase in defense spending, up to 5% of GDP.
- Besides local Hamm news, general-news also covers the anticipated changes in politics, specifically the planned shift in burden-sharing among NATO members, as the US pressures allies to shoulder more responsibility for security on their continent through increased defense spending and conventional defense capabilities, aiming for a fairer distribution of responsibilities within the alliance.
