Von der Leyen proposed using an "activity index" that would take participation in foreign missions into account when assessing budget earmarks for defence. NATO leaders, urged by then US president Barack Obama, agreed the two-percent target in 2014 and reaffirmed it at a 2016 Warsaw summit to counter a more assertive Russia. Von der Leyen acknowledged that the German military "urgently needs a modernisation drive" and that boosting military spending was "simply a matter of fairness in the alliance". Von der Leyen insisted that Germany was also putting its money where its mouth is, with a 3.9-percent increase in defence spending already set out in the 2018 federal budget. I am grateful for that," said von der Leyen, who belongs to Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats.

Source: The Local March 17, 2017 10:18 UTC