Europe Military Power: Germany Troops To Increase By 20,000 After US Calls For Greater NATO Commitment

Germany will increase the size of its military by nearly 20,000 troops over the next seven years, the German Defense Minister said Tuesday. The announcement came just one day after Vice President Mike Pence warned NATO allies that they must increase defense spending to meet their commitment to the international defense organization.

The increase from 178,000 to 198,000 troops represented a 10 percent bump in the size of the Bundeswehr, the unified armed forces of Germany, Deutsche Welle reported on Tuesday. The latest figures represented an upward revision of a troop increase of 14,300 announced in May 2016, the first expansion of the German military since the end of the Cold War.

"The Bundeswehr is under demand like never before," Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen said Tuesday. "In light of these increasing responsibilities, the Bundeswehr must be allowed to grow accordingly."

German forces were deployed to combat ISIS in Iraq and Syria as well as in Mali to keep the peace, according to Deutsche Welle. German troops were also stationed in the Baltic as part of NATO defense forces serving as a bulwark against possible Russian aggression.

European investment in NATO has come under fire from the administration of President Donald Trump. NATO has set defense spending targets at 2 percent of GDP for each member country. Last year, the U.S. spent 3.6 percent of its GDP on defense. Germany has spent less than 1.5 percent of its GDP on defense, according to the Economist. That discrepancy led Trump to criticize NATO, calling the organization "obsolete" in a January interview.

In Brussels on Monday, Pence emphasized that the U.S. had "unwavering support" for NATO, but warned that NATO allies must increase their commitment to the organization. "Europe's defense requires Europe's commitment as well as ours," Pence said. "The patience of the American people will not endure forever."

The German foreign minister said Wednesday that German military expansion should be done with caution, as the county's military history has not been kind to its neighbors, Reuters reported.

"One has to ask whether it would really calm Germany's neighbors if we turned into big military power in Europe," Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said.