German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said on Thursday that Berlin accepts in principle the demand from the United States that NATO member states increase defense spending to 5% of GDP.

Speaking on the sidelines of an informal gathering of NATO foreign ministers in Antalya, Turkey, Wadephul said: "The result is the 5% that President [Donald] Trump has called for, and we will follow him in this respect."

NATO members are currently committed to spending at least 2% of GDP on military expenditure, a target which around one third of the alliance still doesn't meet, including Portugal (1.55%), Italy (1.49%), Canada (1.37%), Belgium (1.3%) and Spain (1.28%).

Germany currently spends just over 2% of its GDP on defense and new Chancellor Friedrich Merz said last week that each additional percentage point would mean further annual expenditure of €45 billion ($50.5 billion).

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Rubio on NATO: 'No weak links'

With some countries considering 5% unrealistic, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte last week suggested a compromise whereby classic military spending be increased to 3.5% with the remaining 1.5% to be invested in defense-related infrastructure.

"For example, to make sure that bridges are there for you and me to drive our cars, but also, if necessary, to make sure that the bridge will hold a tank," he said upon arrival at the Antalya meeting.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the 5% target would not be reached in just a couple of years and would pose a financial challenge for the United States, too, which currently spends only 3.37% of GDP on defense – albeit by far the most in absolute terms.

"NATO has the opportunity to grow even stronger," he said in Antalya. "The alliance is only as strong as its weakest link, and we intend and endeavor to have no weak links in this alliance."

Bavaria's Söder: '3.5% is doable'

Back in Germany, Markus Söder, the leader of the Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian sister party of Merz and Wadephul's conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), also backed an increase in defense spending.

"3.5% will be the core minimum that we're going to have to invest, possibly extended to 5% of GDP," he said at a meeting of defense industry representatives in Munich in Thursday. "That means at least €150 billion per year extra."

Söder predicted that NATO countries would eventually settle on the 3.5% compromise, since even the United States don't spend 5% of GDP on defense.

"I think that's doable, I think that's manageable," he said. "And that's what we have to do, with no tricks, but with clarity."

SPD: Trump's demands are 'off the scale'

However, while Merz, Wadephul and Söder are singing from the same hymn sheet, the CDU's coalition partners, the Social Democrats (SPD), appear less united.

SPD finance expert Andreas Schwarz told Bavarian media that the suggestion from NATO Secretary General Rutte "is heading in the right direction," but foreign policy spokesman Adis Ahmetovic warned the CDU not to jump to premature decisions.

"The budget will be determined within the coalition," he told Stern magazine.

SPD veteran Ralf Stegner rejected an increase in defense expenditure to 5% of GDP entirely. While accepting that Germany must do more to bolster its own defensive capabilities and those of NATO, he told the Handelsblatt newspaper that "Donald Trump's billion-dollar rearmament demands are off the scale."

Merz: German army to be 'strongest in Europe'

On Wednesday, German Chancellor Merz declared his intention to reinvest in Germany's armed forces in order to transform the Bundeswehr into the "strongest conventional army in Europe."

In his first major address to parliament since his new coalition government was inaugurated last week, Merz promised that Germany would take on greater responsibility within NATO and the European Union.

"This is appropriate for Europe's most populous and economically powerful country," he said. "Our friends and partners expect this from us. Indeed, they practically demand it."

Edited by: Wesley Rahn