Germany must increase its military spending because of the "threat from Russia." This was in an interview with the German edition of Welt am Sonntag, said US Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell.
“America only reminds its important alliance partner that now is not the time to weaken NATO. Russia is on our doorstep, everyone should be clear that NATO needs to be strengthened now, ”the American diplomat emphasized.
On February 5, the German representative in the North Atlantic Alliance, Hans-Dieter Lukas, handed the theses of the German government to the organization’s general secretary, Jens Stoltenberg, on increasing the country's military spending to 1.5% of GDP by 2024. In absolute figures, they will grow from the current € 43.2 billion euros to € 60 billion or more, according to journalists from the Spiegel publication, who have read the document.
- US Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell
- globallookpress.com
- © Klaus-Dietmar Gabbert / ZB
However, as Richard Grenell emphasizes, such indicators still do not correspond to the stated goals of the alliance. NATO requires all its members to spend at least 2% of their GDP on defense by 2024. According to estimates of the North Atlantic Alliance published in July 2018, for the whole of last year Germany had to spend only 1.24% of its GDP on defense, while the expenditure level of the United States was 3.5% of the gross domestic product of the country.
"Money to the wind"
Requirements for European allies to pay more for their security are traditional and for US President Donald Trump. During the NATO summit in Brussels last year, the American leader demanded that Europeans increase spending to 4% of GDP and severely criticized Angela Merkel for lagging behind in this area and cooperation in the energy sector with Russia.
As Alexander Kamkin, a leading researcher at the Center for German Studies at the Institute of Europe, RAS, said in an interview with RT, on the whole, the position of the Trump administration towards Germany and Russia is in line with the geopolitical trend that was formed several decades ago.
“Let us recall the statement attributed to NATO’s First Secretary General Hastings Lionel Ismeyu regarding the US role in Europe: we must keep Germans under our boots, Russians outside of Europe and Americans inside Europe (in the original -“ keep the Soviet Union out down. ” - RT ) , the current statements of Grenella are quite consistent with this logic, but in new realities,” notes Kamkin.
According to experts, such statements are a veiled call for increased spending. Despite the strong positions of a number of European firms in the arms market, American corporations will receive a significant part of orders when defense spending is increased.
“Where will these 2% go? On the purchase of the same American weapons, - said Alexander Mikhailov, head of the Bureau of Military-Political Analysis, in an interview with RT. “The countries of Europe are reluctant to do this, since they are well aware that expensive American weapons will not increase their defenses in any way, especially against the background of the progress of Russian military technology. It's just money down the drain, the loyalty fee of the US.
Nuclear exchange
The United States Ambassador is not the only one who has recently been urging Germans to increase military spending. Recently, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said this in an interview with Funke, the German media group.
- NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg
- © Francois Lenoir / Reuters
“I understand that this is not easy, and states prefer to invest in health care, education or infrastructure, but we also need to invest more in our security,” Stoltenberg stressed.
In addition, according to the NATO Secretary General, Berlin should continue to participate in the policy of "nuclear exchange" ("nuclear sharing") with the United States. Within its framework, the FRG and a number of other partners of the Americans in the alliance (the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and Turkey) have the opportunity to use part of the American nuclear arsenal in the event of aggression against the member states of the organization. As a rule, these are American nuclear bombs located at NATO bases in these countries.
Russia traditionally considers such a policy a gross violation of the nuclear nonproliferation regime. However, according to Stoltenberg, nuclear weapons in Europe are necessary just to contain Russia.
“NATO’s goal is a world without nuclear weapons, but the world will not be safer if we find ourselves against nuclear weapons, and Russia, China and others will maintain or even increase their nuclear arsenal,” Stoltenberg said.
According to experts, the appeal of the NATO Secretary General to Berlin to preserve the policy of “nuclear exchange” may be based not only on the imaginary need to restrain Russia or China with the B61 bombs produced since the 1960s, but also the very specific interests of American arms manufacturers.
Previously, the American multi-purpose fighter F-35 Lightning company Lockheed Martin was excluded from the competition of the Bundeswehr to replace the aging fighter fleet Tornado. The fight for contracts of the German defense ministry continued another offspring of the American aircraft industry - the F / A-18 Superhornet of Boeing and the European Eurofighter Typhoon. The competitive advantage of American aircraft is that they can easily go through the procedure for obtaining a license to use American nuclear weapons in the US government. But their competitors may have problems with this.
“The United States will use all methods of pressure on European partners to choose American weapons,” says Alexander Mikhailov. “For Americans, this is not new.”
The expert does not exclude that the Germans still have to buy the F-35, since too much money was spent on the program of its construction.
"Manipulation of relationships"
The topic of Russian nuclear weapons was also raised by Grenell. The American ambassador used this argument, criticizing the support of the Nord Stream — 2 project by the Germans.
“If Germany is really concerned about Russian nuclear weapons, shouldn’t she then give up giving Moscow more influence by buying Russian gas?” The American diplomat said.
Grenell noted that the United States does not oppose Russian gas in principle, but the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which is planned to deliver 55 billion cubic meters from Russia to Germany from the end of 2019. m of blue fuel per year, allegedly increase the dependence of Germany on the Russian Federation.
- Construction of the Nord Stream-2
- © Nord Stream 2 / Aksel Schmidt
Such criticism from Grenella has already become traditional. In January, a wave of indignation in the Bundestag caused Grenella's letters to German businessmen in which he warned the company about the possibility of imposing sanctions because of participation in the North Stream-2.
As Alexander Mikhailov stresses, such statements are “the manipulation of allied relations within NATO for their own purely mercantile purposes.”
“Americans are trying hard to link economic cooperation with security,” Alexander Kamkin believes in turn. “If for Germany and Europe as a whole, Nord Stream 2 is a very profitable economic project, the United States regards it in terms of the battle for the markets for its liquefied gas and the struggle for political influence in Europe.”
The expert notes that many other trends in the politics of European countries, for example, an attempt to circumvent American sanctions against Iran, which Grenell also condemned, is viewed by the American establishment as evidence of a desire to “get out from under the US umbrella.”
At the same time, due to the inertia that has been preserved since the days of the Cold War, the argument of the “Russian threat” still works for a large part of German politicians, Kamkin believes. Therefore, the Americans and NATO members use it so actively.
“As long as the pro-American, Atlantic elite represented by Mrs. Merkel and her followers will be in power in Germany, in Berlin they will listen to Washington’s opinion more,” the political analyst notes. “But we see that public opinion is gradually ceasing to believe the stereotypes according to which Russia is presented as an“ enemy ”, and America — as a“ friend. ” Traditional pro-American parties are in crisis, and the strengthened "left" and "Alternative for Germany" oppose American hegemony and for cooperation with our country. "