Lindner-'2% Of GDP Defence Spending Target Is Enough'

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference (livestream here), German Defence Minister Christian Lindner states that the NATO, "2% [of GDP] defence spending target is enough, it is already a challenge to maintain this [level of] spending". Lindner claims that "We don't just spend less on defence than the US, we are also less efficient in defence spending."

• Lindner's comments were delivered in the aftermath of former US President Donald Trump claiming in two separate election rallies that he would not come to the aid of NATO allies if they were attacked if they were 'delinquent' in not meeting their NATO spending targets.
• They also come as the German Defence Ministry confirmed on 13 Feb that the gov't was hitting the 2% of GDP defence spending floor for the first time since the end of the Cold War.
• Reuters: "The German government is allocating the equivalent of 71.8 billion euros ($76.8 billion) for defence spending in the current year through regular and special budget outlays....[Defence Minister Boris] Pistorius pushed back at opposition suggestions that Germany should increase its special military defence fund to 300 billion euros ($320 billion) from 100 billion, saying the government should increase its regular budgetary outlay instead."
• Lindner finds himself in a difficult position, with pressure to raise military spending amid Russia's continued assault on Ukraine coming up against a hole in the federal budget and demands from within his own pro-business liberal Free Democrats to maintain the 'schwarze null' balanced budget.