this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2025
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I don't think bolstering up defence spending is bad.
It is much better to be prepared than sorry, also negotiating from a strong standpoint is helpful towards some other nations.
The EU defense spending is already massive, easily outclassing everyone but the US.
The problem is on what the money is spend on, as much is wasted to national white elephants or transferred to unreliable US defense companies.
And in general way too much is spend on global force projection tech. There is for example no need for the EU to have a navy fleet that can operate independently for many months in the Pacific.
China is up there too, with U.S. $236.1 billion in 2024.
So Tahiti or New Caledonia do not need a navy to be protected. I am sure the French will be exited by having part of their country not being protected by the EU.
Now add all the EU defense spending together. But yes, China is trying to catch up, which isn't great either.
Those French overseas colonies would probably benefit from more independence, yes, but if you have an actual military base there or an ally that wants you to be there, you don't need navy ships capable of operational multi-month independence either. That is really only needed if operating in hostile territory far away from home, and IMHO we don't need that.
Chinas defense spending is now higher then EU defense spending was before Russia invaded.
Yes, but EU defense spending now is a hundred billion higher and is projected to increase by another hundred billion by 2027. That double of what China is currently spending, and AFAIK they don't have plans to increase it by that much.
That is for this years budget....
https://apnews.com/article/china-defense-budget-taiwan-4ac7cbdc7d5b889732cd55916ff7eb36
Seems to confirm what I said. And Germany is literally discussing non-defense spending infrastructure projects that aid defense projects right now, so this isn't much different from what those experts are saying about China.