Pistorius attacks Trump: False Ukraine policy endangers peace!

Pistorius attacks Trump: False Ukraine policy endangers peace!

In the middle of growing tensions in the Ukraine conflict, the German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has brought sharp criticism of ex-US President Donald Trump. He accuses Trump of misjudged the negotiation situation between Ukraine and Russia and suggests that the early rejection of NATO membership for Ukraine and the acceptance of Russian area claims have created a poor starting position for peace negotiations. "This is not helpful," says Pistorius, who also had little hope for positive results from the recent phone call between Trump and the Russian President Vladimir Putin. "There is hope for peace, as long as discussions take place," he added, although Putin's conditions for a ceasefire are currently not acceptable. OE24

In the current discussion about military support for Ukraine, Pistorius emphasizes that the sending of German soil troops is currently excluded and that this is not seriously discussed. However, scenarios for the time after the fighting in Ukraine are drawn up internally. "The speculation about a possible commitment of the Bundeswehr is currently not helpful because there is no basis for this," said Wehren representative Högl. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also spoke out on the sidelines of a NATO Foreign Ministers' meeting for an "international presence" to secure a possible ceasefire, which led to criticism from various political parties. Deutschlandfunk reports .

increase in defense spending

A central topic of the discussion about the German security strategy is to increase defense spending. Germany has reported NATO for the first time in three decades of defense expenditure of two percent of the gross domestic product (GDP). At the equivalent of $ 73.41 billion, this represents a record value for Germany. Record heights were last reached in 1992 when the expenses were also two percent of GDP, while in the time of the Cold War this rate was usually over three percent. According to the last public report for 2023, a GDP quota of only 1.57 percent is specified, which will be corrected upwards in the upcoming reports.

Pistorius is in favor of an annual increase in defense spending by 0.2 percentage points of GDP. In a long -term outlook, Germany could increase from around 2% of GDP to around 3.5% to 2032. These adjustments correspond to NATO's new requirements, which were decided last summer to be better prepared for the threats of Russia. In this context, Trump's earlier statements, according to which he would not grant alliance partners with low defense spending in the event of a Russian attack, which was sharply criticized by US President Joe Biden.