According to Johannes Stern in World Socialist Web Site, Germany is playing an ever-greater role in NATO’s aggressive buildup against Russia, increasingly threatening a third world war. Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (Social Democrats, SPD) on February 18 called for a rapid and massive increase in defense spending to prepare the German armed forces for a possible war against Russia. “The threatening situation on the borders of Ukraine has once again shown us very clearly how important an effective deterrent is unfortunately again today,” she explained to Der Spiegel. From this, Germany’s governing coalition must draw conclusions “for the financing of the German army.”
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The spending figures being discussed behind the scenes are gigantic: according to a detailed paper reported on by Der Spiegel, planners for the German armed forces have calculated that the military will need an additional €37.6 billion in the years up to 2026 (Picture source: Wikipedia)
As reported by Johannes Stern, German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht explained that national and alliance defense within NATO is one of the core tasks of the German armed forces. “They have to be equipped in the best possible way for this, and that also means that the defense budget must continue to increase,” she said. The spending figures being discussed behind the scenes are gigantic: according to a detailed paper reported on by Der Spiegel, planners for the armed forces have calculated that the military will need an additional €37.6 billion in the years up to 2026. This extra spending will be needed “to fulfill commitments already made to NATO and to be able to implement urgently needed modernization steps, such as the purchase of a new fleet of fighter jets.”
In a speech at the Munich Security Conference, which was all about the war offensive against Russia, Lambrecht repeated her demand. “We have to pay for the security of tomorrow today. And I mean that literally: In order to give ourselves the necessary room for maneuver to modernize our armed forces, we have to be in good financial shape. In other words, we must continue to increase defense spending and do so sustainably,” she commented. “The conflicts of the future will no longer only be fought on land, at sea and in the air, but also in cyberspace and in space,” she said. “We will always be dealing with new weapon systems: just a few years ago, steerable hypersonic missiles were a thing of the future. Today they are reality.”
Lambrecht identified the nuclear powers, Russia and China, as opponents. Moscow has “developed an exoskeleton that makes soldiers more mobile, more efficient and more resilient,” and in China “bionic research has military priority.” She concluded.
“Today, we have to say this very clearly, a new war is threatening in the middle of our Europe,” said German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock in her speech at the Munich Security Conference. Russia is making “an absolutely unacceptable threat with its troop deployment against Ukraine, but also against all of us and our peace architecture in Europe.”
Germany, together with other NATO allies, increased the operational readiness of the NATO intervention force. “At the request of the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR), General Tod Wolters, and in close coordination with the Allies, the federal government will increase the responsiveness of the German army’s forces registered in the NATO Response Force,” said a statement from the Ministry of Defense reported by Johannes Stern. This means that the readiness to relocate almost 14,000 soldiers who were deployed to Germany as part of the NATO Response Force is reduced to the minimum of 30 days.
