Berlin commits to NATO spending goal by 2031 for 1st time – defense minister

Germany will reach a NATO defense spending target by 2031, its defense minister said, missing a 2024 deadline agreed by the allies. NATO members have recently been under heavy US pressure to beef up their military budgets.

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said Germany would spend two percent of its economic output on defense by 2031, belatedly reaching the goal set by NATO leaders at a 2014 summit, Reuters reports.

“NATO is and will remain the anchor of European security. But it is also clear that Europe must increase its own complementary ability to act,” Kramp-Karrenbauer told a private event to honor NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday night.

“We need [to spend] 1.5 percent by 2024 and two percent by 2031 at the latest,” she said, according to her office. This is the first time the minister has publicly committed to the target before an international audience, and it comes weeks before the next NATO summit on December 4. The move to meet the target was taken not because “others are calling for it but because it is in the interest of our own security,” she added.