Bloomberg has learned about Germany's plans to double its defense budget

Germany's defense budget could double (to €162 billion) over the next four years, as Germany seeks to rearm on a large scale and meet NATO's goals of increasing defense spending to 3.5% of GDP. This was reported by Bloomberg on July 28.

"Among the potential purchases, Germany is considering the purchase of up to 2.5 thousand GTK Boxer armored fighting vehicles and up to a thousand Leopard 2 main battle tanks as part of joint European efforts to create new NATO brigades," the publication says.

According to the newspaper, €9 billion out of €162 billion will be spent annually on supporting Ukraine. It is emphasized that an increase in military spending will also mean underfunding other budget items.

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French President Emmanuel Macron announced on July 13 that the country's authorities intend to increase the growth rate of defense spending — in 2027 this figure should reach €64 billion. At the same time, as the newspaper Le Figaro clarifies, France is still far from 3.5% of GDP allocated to defense.

The NATO summit ended in The Hague on June 25. Following the meeting, the countries agreed to raise defense spending to 5% of GDP. After that, on June 26, the heads of the EU member states confirmed the goal of achieving the ability to autonomously solve defense and security tasks in five years by adopting an appropriate document.

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