Before the NATO summit on Monday, Union Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet spoke out in favor of higher military spending in Germany and a stronger assumption of military burdens by the Bundeswehr.
If he won the election as Federal Chancellor, he wanted to meet the alliance's goal of two percent of the economic output in NATO's military budget, the CDU chief affirmed in the newspaper Bild am Sonntag: "If we have made an international appointment, we should stick to it."
Laschet said that Germany was "as an ally jointly responsible for the security of many of our partners" and must also take on more military tasks in the future.
“In Africa and around the Mediterranean, Germany has to do more.” Especially during the Bundeswehr mission in Mali, Laschet was open to relieving the French: “We are active together with France in Mali and one can always talk about a stronger burden sharing. "
In addition to the former colonial power France, Germany is also deployed with the Bundeswehr as part of EU and UN missions in Mali to help stabilize the country.