With a large majority, the Bundestag has decided that up to 400 Bundeswehr soldiers would continue to participate in a mission against piracy. The Atalanta mission, led by the EU and is designed to ensure international shipping, is about controls off the coast of Somalia, East Africa.

Defense spending increased in 2020

Germany’s military expenditures, meanwhile, have a higher share of the gross domestic product (GDP) due to the lower economic power caused by the corona crisis. Germany will come a big step closer to its goal of investing two percent of GDP in the defense budget in 2020, said the German Economic Institute (IW). Defense spending would be 1.58 percent, according an IW estimate.

Germany had promised its NATO partners that it would strive for the 2 percent target. In 2019, the rate was 1.36 percent. In November last year, Germany had already stated that it would spend over 50 billion Euros on the military budget. The Department of Defense said, in an answer to a parliamentary question, that spending is expected to rise to 50.4 billion Euros in 2020.