German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has promised that spending on the German armed forces will be maintained, after the terms of a preliminary 2025 budget deal agreed on Friday showed a modest increase for the Bundeswehr. Scholz said that the Bundeswehr’s regular budget would reach €80 billion ($87 billion) after 2028, when the emergency €100 billion special fund for the armed forces – agreed in the aftermath of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 – is spent. The chancellor said the €80-billion figure would ensure Germany reaches the NATO threshold of spending 2% of GDP on defence. The B…