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German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced the move to an extraordinary session of the Bundestag lower house of parliament on Sunday. He said: “We will have to invest more in the security of our country to protect out freedom and democracy.”
He added that the government had decided to supply £84 billion (100 billion euros) for military investments from its 2022 budget.
Berlin has long resisted pressure from the US and others to raise its defence spending to two percent of economic output in the light of its bloody 20th century history and resulting strong pacifism among its population.
In recent days Germany has made a turnabout on various longstanding policies, including its refusal to deliver weapons to conflict zones, agreeing to send Ukraine defensive anti-tank weapons, surface-to-air missiles and ammunition.
Mr Scholz told the lower house: “There could be no other answer to Putin’s aggression.”
The number of Nato member states meeting or exceeding the alliance’s target of spending two percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) on defence has decreased, according to official estimates published in February.
Germany was hitting 1.53 percent of GDP in its defence spending – below the Nato guideline.
This compares to Nato data estimating UK defence spending as a percentage of GDP falling from 2.32 percent in 2020 to an estimated 2.29 percent for 2021. Luxembourg was at the bottom of the list of Nato members with a GDP spend of 0.57 percent. The military alliance has 30 members.
Berlin has said it would spend two percent of its economic output on defence by 2031 – a goal set by Nato leaders at a 2014 summit held months after Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula.
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