Germany’s Scholz talks up the NATO spending pledge and the FCAS fighter deal. On Friday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced that even when a dedicated defense fund worth 100 billion euros ($106 billion) is depleted, his administration would modify its defense budget to guarantee the nation meets the NATO expenditure requirement of 2% of GDP.
Speaking the day after his government made a dramatic policy change to increase expenditure and modernize its troops in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Scholz said that the German military would become the “backbone” of European defense.
Scholz stated on reaching the NATO objective, “We will definitely solve it in such a way that the Bundeswehr (army) gets the resources it needs—even after the special fund expires.”
Scholz also cited the FCAS project, which aims to produce a combat jet in collaboration with France and Spain, as evidence of more robust European defense cooperation.
“In this sense, we have advanced the FCAS fighter aircraft project with France and Spain and will now also quickly advance the MGCS main battle tank project under German leadership with France,” he stated.
After a recent story in Britain’s The Times newspaper stated that Germany was considering walking out of the contract because of problems over design and funding, his reference to FCAS seemed to highlight Berlin’s commitment to the project.
