(Typing error in the quote in the 2nd sentence corrected: guideline values)
Berlin (dpa -AfX) – According to Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU), the debate about the proportion of defense spending on economic strength should not be overestimated. “This discussion about GDP percentages is an auxiliary structure to have guidelines in which direction we go with the armament of the armed forces,” said Merz in the ZDF talk program “Maybrit Illner”.
Instead, it should be more about the concrete military skills. “We have to develop the ability to defend the European continent out on our own,” said the CDU chairman. “There are many things to catch up that we have missed together in recent years – and we are guided by that.”
On the request of US President Donald Trump that NATO countries should spend five percent of their gross domestic product, Merz did not go into, not even on the statement of his Foreign Minister Johann WadePhul (CDU). WadePhul had publicly committed himself at a NATO meeting in Turkey ./ax/mfi/dp/he