France should spend more on defense, even if that means cutting other expenditures, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul says. On German public radio yesterday, Wadephul criticized French President Emmanuel Macron for “repeatedly and correctly speak[ing] of our pursuit of European sovereignty” but giving insufficient effort to achieve it.

• Wadephul called on France and other European governments to obtain additional military funds by cutting spending in other areas and to scrap Eurobonds and other joint European Union borrowing schemes. He urged European countries to implement nato’s defense spending target of 5 percent of gross domestic product by 2035.

His blunt assessment:

Anyone talking about independence from the U.S. today needs to do their homework first.

Trillion-dollar forces: If each EU member nation were spending 5 percent of its gdp on defense, the bloc’s cumulative defense budget would be nearly $1.1 trillion, just ahead of the United States. As things stand, however, the EU military budget is only about 40 percent of the U.S. military budget.

• France is Europe’s second-largest economy and has the world’s ninth-largest military by spending. Germany, which has the top economy in Europe and the world’s fourth-largest military, wants it to contribute more to European rearmament.

Data: SIPRI Military Expenditure Database, Julia Henderson/Trumpet

Germany wants France to contribute more, partially because the radical Alternative für Deutschland party is already trying to oust Chancellor Friedrich Merz by stirring up discontent over German deficit spending.

Bible prophecy: Revelation 17:12 prophesies of the rise of 10 kings leading 10 nations or groups of nations in Europe. Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote in 2023 that five of these 10 kings had already risen: Austria, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. The identity of the other five kings has not been revealed, but both Spain and Poland are proving to be vital military allies to Germany. Expect more nations to heed Wadephul’s call until Europe becomes a clear alliance of 10 powerful militaries.