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Saturday, 26 June 2021 (YJC) _ Leader of the Alternative for Germany warns against starting arms race with Russia.
German defence spending has gone up by double digits in recent years, with Berlin committing over $61 billion to its military in 2020. Washington has pressured the country to further ramp up spending to meet a NATO 2 percent of GDP spending guideline. The alliance shelled out over $1 trillion for defence last year –over 21 times Russia’s spending.
Germany should not be seeking to further grow defence spending, but looking for ways to reduce military outlays and engage in talks with Russia, Tino Chrupalla, leader of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) Party, told Sputnik.
“You must look at German defence expenditures as a whole. They are $10 billion less than Russia’s. I don’t see any need for Germany to increase expenditures on armaments. On the contrary, we should not be starting a new arms race, but must be talking about how we can disarm,” the lawmaker said.
Earlier this week, on the anniversary of the start of the war on the eastern front in World War II between the USSR and Nazi Germany, Sevim Dagdelen, a member of the Bundestag from The Left (Die Linke) faction, penned an article in which she warned that NATO’s arms buildup and the deliberate escalation of tensions with Russia was a sign that the German government had “forgotten history.”
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