Speaker 1: Let's go next to Fiona from Germany. Fiona, welcome.
Fiona, from Germany, please unmute, you're on the air. And last chance for Fiona from Germany
to unmute, you're on the air, but you must have working odd. Hello, Fiona. Hello. How are you?
Speaker 6: I'm fine, thank you. Sorry about my audio sometimes doesn't like changing channels.
I would be interested in what's like your opinion on the German reinvestment into military
because I'm concerned about what my government does with talking so little to each other,
let alone the general public, you know? Speaker 1: Yeah, I have to tell you, it's not
a big shock to me that there is renewed interest in investment in a larger military in Germany,
to be perfectly honest. And I think the reasons for that are one is a more longer-term reason and
one is more short term. After seeing the way that the Trump presidency caused a rift with Germany,
which is historically in recent decades, such a great ally of the United States.
It seems logical now I don't. I'm not saying I love everybody having bigger militaries, but I'm
just saying from the German perspective, if all of a sudden you're not quite so friendly with like
one of your big allies that also has this massive military, which is the United States, it seems
completely sensible that you would say, Hey, we should probably just have a bigger military, given
that we don't know what sorts of needs we might have, that we need to go go it alone for. If there
is another Trump where we're all of a sudden not getting along so well or the American president
can't be relied upon or is just a loose cannon so that that to me makes a lot of sense as to why
it would make Germany have a renewed interest in having a stronger military. Does that make sense?
Speaker 6: Somewhat. But I would have expected that it would be a more European approach,
especially since we still rely on the French president to say whatever our military
is going to do, like two weeks in advance. Speaker 1: OK? Yeah, but I think that it edge it
in, even if you consider it a European interest. I would include France in this as well. I mean,
all all of these Western European countries suffered a situation during Trump's four years
where all of a sudden the U.S. was a different sort of ally than previous
to Trump. So it does make a lot of sense to me. Speaker 6: I do get that, but declaring a national
budget to me with disturbing like the same time, it was also announced that Germany would like
put some troops in reserve for the European Commission to have emergency access to
which I believe would have been more popular with the German general public than just like throwing
double the annual budget on the military want. Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't disagree with you and
I'm not saying I like it. I'm just saying that thinking about it from a geopolitical perspective,
I understand it. I think the other thing also is there's probably some degree to which the
Russian invasion of Ukraine is making. A lot of countries just kind of reevaluate
their military capabilities. And it wouldn't be surprising to me that that might also push some
militaries, some countries to want to strengthen the military, either, although that's more of a
short term, hopefully a short term thing. Speaker 6: Thanks for taking my question.
Speaker 1: My pleasure. Fiona, from Germany, what a call, what a call