EU states to boost military plans as they deal with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
  • albert180@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    111·
    20 hours ago

    5% of GDP is crazy

    Remember it’s not 5% of the taxes collected, it’s 5% of all Goods and Services produced in the entire economy.

    In Germany that would be more than half of the federal state budget

  • aramis87@fedia.io
    131·
    1 day ago

    I don’t think this is so much as them intending to meet Trump’s goal for the sake of reaching that goal. I think it’s more that they were former Soviet countries next to a Russia that’s very interested in regaining their former empire; they’re small and vulnerable and they know that Trump will do whatever Putin tells him to do, so there’s no protection from the US; and the EU hasn’t really taken advantage of the time since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine to increase their overall defenses. That last point means that supplies are going to be difficult to come by to resist a long, determined effort by Putin to annex their countries.

    The 5% military spending is a reflection of that reality, a prod to other EU and NATO countries to increase their spending, and a notice to Putin that they intend to resist.