BERLIN, January 13. /TASS/. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has distanced himself from US President-elect Donald Trump's call for increasing defense spending by NATO countries to 5% of their GDP.
"Five percent would mean more than 200 billion euros a year. Germany’s budget is less than 500 billion euros," Scholz said during a trip to the city of Bielefeld. "This is only possible on the condition of a significant tax increase or major cuts in spending on many things that are important to us," the DPA news agency quotes him as saying.
The chancellor vowed that Germany would continue to spend no less than the NATO target of 2% of GDP on defense.
"I guarantee that we will continue to spend 2% of our GDP on defense," he said. "Anyone who says this is not the way to go should also say where to get the money from," Scholz stated.
Germany's GDP in 2023, according to some estimates, was around 4.2 trillion euros.
Earlier, Trump told a news conference that he intended to push for an increase in military spending by NATO member-states to 5% of their GDP.