Germany met NATO's target to spend 2% of its gross domestic product on defence in 2024, the government said on Monday, though well short of incoming U.S. President Donald Trump's call for as much as 5%.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The leader of Germany's conservative CDU, the party's candidate to run for chancellor, said on Tuesday that the nation should focus on efforts to reach existing NATO defence spending targets before discussing any further increases.

Germany met the NATO alliance's target to spend 2% of its gross domestic product on defence in 2024, finance ministry sources said on Monday, and finished the year with a reserve of 10.7 billion euros ($11.

Germany's Bundestag, or lower house of parliament, late on Thursday extended four overseas missions of the country's armed forces, just weeks before the parliamentary election on February 23. The German Navy will continue to participate in the European Union military mission in the Red Sea aimed at protecting the important maritime shipping route

NATO is deploying eyes in the sky and on the Baltic Sea to protect cables and pipelines that stitch together the nine countries with shores on Baltic waters.

The return of Trump will once again put European defense spending levels at the center of the United States’ approach to NATO. Over the past several years, NATO members have boosted investments, with about 20 out of 32 members hitting the alliance’s benchmark of spending 2% of gross domestic product on defense.

NATO is deploying eyes in the sky and on the Baltic Sea to protect cables and pipelines that stitch together the nine countries with shores on Baltic waters.

Germany has met NATO's 2% GDP defense spending target for 2024. This comes despite budget constraints and aligns with Chancellor Scholz's strategy since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. However, long-term military funding remains uncertain,

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With its powerful camera, the French Navy surveillance plane scouring the Baltic Sea zoomed in on a cargo ship plowing the waters below — closer, closer and closer still until the camera operator could make out details on the vessel's front deck and smoke pouring from its chimney.

BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany met NATO's target to spend 2% of its gross domestic product on defence in 2024, the government said on Monday, though well short of incoming U.S. President Donald Trump's ...

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