Dedicate 2% of GDP to defense “is not enough”estimated Thursday the German and French ministers of Defensewho however do not want “getting locked in a war of numbers” faced with Donald Trump's demand to see NATO member states pass them at 5%. “All of us in Europe are aware, and not just because of Trump, that 2% will not be enough to make our armed forces capable of defending themselves in the event of a Russian attack or to be a deterrent”admitted Boris Pistorius during a joint interview with Sébastien Lecornu on LCI. “Europe needs to devote more money to its defense (…), 2% is not enough. However, we must not get locked into this war of numbers either.added the French Minister of the Armed Forces.
The United States itself only spends on its defense 3,2% of the wealth produced on their soil, recalled Mr. Pistorius, according to whom devoting 5% to it would represent for Germany “41 or 42% of the federal budget”. “The essential question is that it is not a question of knowing how much money we are going to spend, but (…) of knowing why we spend this money, where and how”he insisted. For Sébastien Lecornuwho believes that Europeans are “too slow in rearmament”, “It’s not just about money” : “We must above all talk about 2% useful” to have trained and equipped forces and not “to buy weapons to fill hangars and not know how to use them.”
Dassault Aviation, Thales, BAE… “On the stock market, defense is increasingly sought after”
Opposition to Donald Trump's demand
The chancellor Olaf Scholz marked its opposition last week to Donald Trump's demand, stressing that this represented “a lot of money” for the German budget. President Emmanuel Macron, for his part, considered that his American counterpart had «raison» to affirm that Europeans should spend more, but refrained from specifying whether France intended to go beyond the budget growth provided for by the 2024-2030 military programming law.
