Unfortunately this will start an arms race like we've never seen. The West has been asleep at the wheel while Russia and China have been building their arsenals! Germany has been woken up.
"The German government has promised to increase military spending after defence chiefs laid bare the “extremely limited” resources of Europe’s biggest economy in helping to push back against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Finance Minister Christian Lindner said it was time for a “turning point” in German defence investment, long a target of criticism by Western allies.
“I worry that we have neglected the armed forces so much in the past that it can’t completely fulfil its duties,” he said.
“Falling defence spending no longer fits with the times.”
Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, a former defence minister under Angela Merkel, had earlier admitted Berlin was guilty of “historical failure” in not bolstering its military.
She said Germany had forgotten lessons from the past that “negotiation always comes first, but we have to be militarily strong enough to make non-negotiation not an option for the other side”.
