German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said strict limits on government borrowing in German law cannot be allowed to curtail necessary spending on defence and military preparedness.
Pistorius told dpa during a visit to New York on Wednesday that military spending, as well as some emergency response funding, should be excluded from the so-called debt brake rules that are written into Germany's constitution.
The controversial debt brake rules, which were added to the German constitution in 2009, only allow the government to rely on borrowing for deficit spending under certain conditions.
Pistorius did not call for the repeal of the rules, but argued that the restrictions cannot be allowed to keep Germany from meeting its defence obligations.
Germany is currently grappling with how to accommodate the NATO target of spending at least 2% of gross domestic product (GDP) on defence.
A €100 billion ($107 billion) special defence fund created in the wake of the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has propped up Germany's military budget but is due to be exhausted by 2028.
Pistorius has advocated increasing military funding in the regular government budget well before then.
"The debt brake would remain in place, but spending on defence and civil protection would not be included," Pistorius said, pointing out that Germany's constitution also requires the government to provide an adequate defence for the people.
He added that his ministry has prepared a legal opinion to back up his argument.
