It’s coming along.
Earlier this month, France said it was going for the 5% GDP defense spending that President Trump had proposed. Now Germany is aiming for 3.5%.
Germany has just passed a major reform to its constitutional debt brake, unlocking billions of euros in funding. One model shared with CNN suggested that over a 10-year period, with Germany spending 3.5% of GDP, it could amount to €600 billion ($652 billion)…
Since the middle of the Cold War era, Germany’s military expenditure as a percentage of GDP has dropped dramatically. Peaking at 4.9% in 1963, it fell to an all-time low in 2005 of just 1.1%.
Only as recently as 2024 did Germany meet the NATO threshold of 2% spending on defense — marking the first time in more than 30 years.
The UK is trying for 2.5% (which is pathetic, but at least it’s an improvement.)
Meanwhile, China is spending 7.2% and Russia is spending 6.7%.
Europe wasn’t going to start at least moving toward pulling its own weight without a major push. And threatening to cut off Ukraine seems to be doing it. That’s a long way from done, but it’s a whole lot closer than we’ve gotten in a while.
Getting Europe to be more militarily independent is about more than money or what has become the endless U.S. responsibility to provide security for Europe. And then to stand up to Russia without involving us It might even build up enough of a backbone to deal with its domestic Islamic problems.
