Pistorius pointed out the need to increase the size of the Bundeswehr for NATO purposes.

The Bundeswehr needs an additional 50-60 thousand troops to achieve the new NATO defense objectives. This was announced on June 5 by German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius.

"We proceed from the fact that we need about 50-60 thousand more soldiers in the permanent armed forces than today," said the head of the German Defense Ministry, his words are reported by the Tagesspiegel newspaper.

According to the publication, at the end of 2024, there were about 181 thousand soldiers in the ranks of the German army, while at the end of 2023 there were about 182 thousand people.

Last year, Pistorius presented his model for reforming the Bundeswehr, stating that the army needs about 460,000 troops, of which 203,000 are in the regular army, 60,000 active reservists and 200,000 additional reservists, the newspaper writes.

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Merz's decision is not supported by his junior coalition partners.

Earlier, on June 2, the Handelsblatt newspaper reported that the Bundeswehr needed to increase the number of personnel by 80,000 troops in order to meet the new NATO defense requirements. It was clarified that at the moment Germany cannot fulfill its own plan for the number of the Bundeswehr in 203 thousand people.