Germany’s military, which faces worsening equipment and personnel shortages, is thinking about asking foreigners to join its ranks as tensions with U.S. President Donald Trump and domestic politics have complicated efforts to boost defense spending, Business Insider reports.
Trump has continuously criticized Germany of penny pinching on defense, as planned government funding for its military will not meet its needs after next year —military spending by Europe’s largest economy will rise to 1.3 percent of GDP in 2019 but then fall back to around 1.23 percent by 2022.
“This is not fair, nor is it acceptable,” Trump said in a Twitter post in July, adding that other countries were “nowhere close to their 2 percent commitment” either.
His comments have certainly highlighted the issue, but Germany's Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen said the German government, “doesn’t want to burn money or waste money.”
“We are aiming at this 2 percent. We invest heavily in the armed forces right now, which is actually necessary because we came from a period — all European countries — after reunification when the Soviet Union collapsed and Warsaw Pact disappeared where we had 25 long years of budget cuts. Therefore the Wales turnaround was a right one and is a right one, and we are committed to the 2 percent goal,” von der Leyen told NPR in early July.
“But, of course, if you have a very strong growing GDP, you have an amount of money. If you invest it in defense, it has to be invested usefully. We don't want to burn money or waste money. We want capabilities. We want contributions out of it.”
Still, reports suggest Germany’s military needs the funding, as 21,000 positions went unfilled in 2017 and shortcomings of weapons, spare parts, and personnel have become “a national laughing stock.”
To assuage the personnel issue, the German Defense Ministry said it was seriously considering recruiting from other countries, per Business Insider.