German Defense Minister Ursula von der
Leyen on Sunday rejected U.S. President Donald Trump's claim that Germany owes
NATO and the United States "vast sums" of money for defense.
"There is no debt account at
NATO," von der Leyen said in a statement, adding that it was wrong to link
the alliance's target for members to spend 2 percent of their economic output
on defense by 2024 solely to NATO.
"Defense spending also goes into
UN peacekeeping missions, into our European missions and into our contribution
to the fight against IS terrorism," von der Leyen said.
She said everyone wanted the burden to
be shared fairly and for that to happen it was necessary to have a "modern
security concept" that included a modern NATO but also a European defense
union and investment in the United Nations.
Trump said on Twitter on Saturday - a
day after meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Washington - that Germany
"owes vast sums of money to NATO & the United States must be paid
more for the powerful, and very expensive, defense it provides to
Germany!"
Trump has urged Germany and other NATO
members to accelerate efforts to meet NATO's defense spending target.
German defense spending is set to rise
by 1.4 billion euros to 38.5 billion euros in 2018 - a figure that is projected
to represent 1.26 percent of economic output, Finance Minister Wolfgang
Schaeuble has said.
In 2016, Germany's defense spending
ratio stood at 1.18 percent.
During her trip to Washington, Merkel
reiterated Germany's commitment to the 2 percent military spending goal.
Reuters*
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