BERLIN, December 8. /TASS/. Germany’s Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz hopes that a missile defense shield, to be created with the participation of other EU countries, will be in place within five years.
"I hope that an anti-missile shield will be created in the next five years," Scholz said in an interview with the Funke Media Group, published on Thursday. "Right now, the government is in talks with manufacturers of various missile defense systems in order to devise specific solutions," he added.
Scholz vowed that Germany "in the long run will be spending 2% of its GDP on the Bundeswehr."
"We have set up a special fund in the amount of 100 billion euros in order to finance the necessary expenses. Among other things, we are expanding the air defense system with the aim of creating a Sky Shield," Scholz said. "The EU’s 14 member-states have already expressed their interest in participating in this project."
On August 29, Scholz told an audience at the Charles University in Prague that there was a plan for creating a new unified air defense system in the EU together with European neighbors. A jointly developed system, he said, would be a security benefit for the whole of Europe.
In October, Germany and 13 NATO member-countries signed a declaration on the creation of a more advanced European air defense system. On the sidelines of the NATO defense ministers’ meeting in Brussels, German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht and her counterparts inked a declaration on a European Sky Shield initiative. This initiative is seen as a means to eliminate the gaps in the current European air defense system.