German party rejects US pressure on defense budget

‘One of Germany’s two major political parties has rejected pressure by the United States to increase the European powerhouse’s defense spending in line with membership rules in the NATO military alliance.
Two leaders with the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), Martin Schulz and Thomas Oppermann, said in a joint article in the Funke Mediengruppe newspaper on Sunday that Germany should not bow to pressure to raise its defense spending to two percent of its gross domestic product (GDP).
“We say a clear no to the ‘two-percent target’ of [US President Donald] Trump and the CDU/CSU,” they said, referring to the Christian Democrat Union of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and its Bavarian sister party.
“It’s not only non-realistic, it is simply the wrong goal,” added Schulz and Oppermann.’
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