“It’s crazy”: We will spend 700 billion euros more on defence than the entire Russian GDP
At the recent summit, the NATO member states agreed to increase their defence spending to 5% of national GDP. Russia is officially classified as a long-term threat.
“Then I think: ‘Is no one thinking about what has just been decided here?’” reacted former Member of the European Parliament Rob Roos in the podcast Op z’n Kop! (in German):
He pointed out that NATO’s collective GDP is €54 trillion, of which 5% corresponds to €2,700 billion – this amount will be spent annually on defence in the future.
Het Rekensommetje van het Militair Industrieel Complex‼️ pic.twitter.com/LSqWFeIYOG
— Ben Kramer (@Benchipichape) July 7, 2025
“And then Russia is portrayed as a major threat – even though Russia’s total GDP is €2,000 billion. So, we’ll be spending €700 billion more on armaments than Russia’s total revenue. That’s insane.”
Roos also emphasized that the necessary equipment was not available at all. “In Ukraine, we had great difficulty supplying the army at all – the equipment simply wasn’t there.”
He also thinks that the military industry, on the other hand, is celebrating: “After this summit, they opened the champagne bottles.”
Roos warned of massive price increases: “A bullet that costs 1 euro today will cost 10 euros after this NATO summit. We’ll hardly buy anything anymore – everything will just keep going, and these people will make money.”
The expected price explosion for weapons and ammunition is no coincidence, but a logical consequence of political decisions. If all NATO countries massively rearm simultaneously, a surge in demand will meet an industry with limited capacity. Production cannot keep pace, raw materials and energy are expensive, and manufacturers know that governments will have to buy at inflated prices. Thus, a bullet that once cost 1 euro quickly becomes worth ten times that amount – while the military industry reaps record profits and ultimately, taxpayers foot the bill.
yogaesoteric
July 14, 2025