{"text":[[{"start":8.05,"text":"Germany is planning to increase defence spending by a fifth in 2027 compared with this year as it seeks to meet Nato’s new target at least six years ahead of schedule."}],[{"start":18.5,"text":"Berlin will spend €144.9bn for defence in 2027, from about €120bn this year, according to government figures circulated ahead of a formal announcement on Wednesday. The figure for next year includes about €11.5bn in military aid to Ukraine, about the same amount as this year. "}],[{"start":39.5,"text":"Germany unlocked its constitutional debt brake last year to allow virtually unlimited borrowing for defence, triggering a massive rearmament drive unprecedented since the cold war in the face of Russia’s threat and an unreliable US administration."}],[{"start":53.8,"text":"The country has also set up a special €500bn debt fund to modernise its infrastructure over the next decade. The twin moves have upended years of fiscal orthodoxy as Europe’s largest economy seeks to grow again."}],[{"start":67,"text":"The government has had to slash its growth forecast for this year and next because of the Iran war, prolonging a long period of stagnation."}],[{"start":75.7,"text":"The government’s four-year budget plan highlights Berlin’s financial power in defence, which dwarfs that of fiscally constrained France and the UK, Europe’s two big nuclear-armed powers."}],[{"start":86.05,"text":"The move to re-arm, started under former chancellor Olaf Scholz in 2022 after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, has accelerated since the return of Donald Trump to the White House last year, coinciding with the formation of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s coalition government."}],[{"start":103.94999999999999,"text":"Hearing calls from across Europe to do more on defence and unsettled by Trump’s repeated threats on Nato and the EU, Merz has vowed to turn the Bundeswehr, which suffered years of under-investment, into “Europe’s largest conventional army”."}],[{"start":119.89999999999999,"text":"Berlin was planning to spend €188.4bn in defence by 2030, according to government officials — including €8.5bn for Ukraine in case the conflict has not ended by then. This would be equivalent to 3.7 per cent of GDP, above the 3.5 per cent Nato core military spending requirements by 2035."}],[{"start":143.29999999999998,"text":"In an attempt to appease Trump, who had repeatedly complained that Europe is not spending enough on its own defence, Nato leaders last year agreed to increase their budgets from 2 per cent of GDP to a total of 5 per cent of GDP over the next decade, including 1.5 per cent of GDP for infrastructure that can also be used by the military."}],[{"start":163.39999999999998,"text":"Merz’s coalition will increase public spending to €543.3bn in total next year, a 3.5 per cent increase from last year. This will result in net borrowings of €196.5bn, up from €182bn in 2026."}],[{"start":189.1,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1777426736_4009.mp3"}