Germany is contributing over €400 million to the NATO joint budget this year for the first time in more than a decade.
This is stated in the response of the German Defense Ministry to the corresponding request of the Bundestag deputy from the Left Party Sevim Dagdelen, which is available to the DPA agency.
The share that the member States of the North Atlantic Alliance allocate to finance both the civilian and military budgets is determined by a special formula based on the gross national product of the country. According to the agency on Thursday, Germany currently covers 16.34% of NATO's expenses, which reach about €2.581 billion.
Thus, in 2021, the amount that Germany should contribute to the joint budget of the alliance is about €421 million. For comparison, last year this figure was €390 million, and in 2010 Germany spent €441 million to finance the North Atlantic Alliance.
TASS reminds that the NATO budget consists of two main parts - military and civilian expenditures. In early October, Alliance Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said at a press conference in Brussels following a meeting of the NATO Council that the bloc's leaders would approve a new strategic concept at a summit in Madrid in 2022.
At the same time, he noted that the document will emphasize the importance of increasing defense spending, additional investments in the purchase of new weapons necessary for the overall security of NATO. The expansion of defense spending will include additional allocations for the military and civilian budgets of the Alliance headquarters and additional infrastructure spending.
