Germany must meet its goal of allocating 2 percent of GDP to military spending and embrace the military leadership role it has previously shied away from, Berlin’s defense minister said on Monday, according to Reuters.

A few days after the start of the war in Ukraine, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced on February 24, a major policy change after decades of limited military spending, that Berlin would create a special fund worth 100 billion euros to bring Germany’s military spending above the threshold of 2% of GDP. NATO members.

The fund is intended to replenish the weapons and equipment of the German military after decades of depletion following the fall of the Berlin Wall and the country’s reunification.

Other NATO members have criticized Germany in the past for failing to fulfill its pledge to spend 2 percent of GDP on the military, with former US President Donald Trump one of the most vocal critics. In April of this year, the former Republican president said that he had threatened NATO countries in Europe that the United States would not defend them in the event of Russian aggression if they did not fulfill this obligation.

Germany has always claimed that, as the largest economy in Europe, it spends more money on the armed forces than many other countries, because the percentage allocated is applied to a higher gross domestic product, even if it does not exceed 2%.

A change in policy towards the German armed forces?

In a speech on Monday outlining the key goals of his mandate, German Defense Minister Christim Lambrecht stressed that in future, the funds now included in a special fund of 100 billion euros should come directly from the increased defense budget.

“We need this money absolutely and for the long term, so that this 100 billion effort that we are making is not in vain,” she said.

“We have to prevent a situation where in a few years we won’t be able to afford to maintain the equipment we’re buying now,” Lambrecht emphasized.

She also said that Germany’s size, geographic location and economic power “give us a leadership role whether we want it or not, including in the armed forces.”

Christine Lambrecht has also talked about relaxing Germany’s very strict rules on arms exports, an initiative that is understood to have been unenthusiastically welcomed by parts of her Social Democratic Party.

But she reiterated that Germany will not send tanks to Ukraine, recalling that no Western country has provided Ukraine with such equipment, and added that Berlin agreed with its Western partners not to take such a step unilaterally.

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