Merz tells Trump that NATO spending figures he used are not up to date

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has used a recent phone call with US President Donald Trump to clarify efforts made by Germany to increase its defence budget, government sources told dpa on Monday.

Merz had called Trump on Friday to congratulate him on the 250th anniversary of US independence.

The two leaders also discussed the NATO summit taking place on Tuesday and Wednesday, which comes amid heightened tensions between Washington and other allies, as Trump has repeatedly criticized what he describes as an unfair sharing of the alliance's defence burden.

NATO allies committed last year to raising defence spending from 2% to 3.5% of national gross domestic product by 2035, with another 1.5% to be spent on related expenditure such as infrastructure.

But Trump has continued to complain, most recently on Thursday when he took to his social media platform Truth Social to slam other allies' defence spending as "ridiculous," highlighting Germany in particular.

The figures Trump used to base his claim on were similar to those in a NATO spending report released last year, but Trump did not give a source.

German government sources said on Monday that Merz told Trump that the figures were no longer up-to-date.

Last year, Germany, which plans to raise defence spending to 3.5% of GDP by 2029, eased its debt limit to unlock billions in loans to be invested in defence.

According to German government sources, European NATO allies alone raised their defence expenditure by more than €100 billion ($114 billion) over the past 12 months, with Berlin upping spending by around €25 billion to €124 billion.