A Reuters report out Thursday questions Germany’s decision not to meet the 2 percent GDP minimum in support of NATO agreed upon in 2014. They plan to stay at 1.25 percent until 2024.
Outrageous. They have Europe’s biggest economy.
It is interesting that the Baltic States fresh out from under the Russian empire in the early ’90s gladly meet the 2 percent standard.
Adding distress to NATO-American interests is the Russian-German Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline guaranteeing German dependency and hard currency transfer to the very empire NATO is built to defend against.
Crimea’s annexation was a tragic loss of freedom. We are fortifying Ukraine with defense upgrades but it’s going to take more.
America spends about 3.5 percent of our GDP on defense with a focus on NATO security. Trump should consider a tariff on German cars and components not built in America and put that windfall toward our $616 billion base defense budget.
