Germany’s Foreign Minister Heiko Maas says he doesn’t think Nato’s defence spending target will be as much of a focus under President-elect Joe Biden.

President Donald Trump has been vocal about Germany’s defence spending, complaining that the country had failed to raise defence spending to 2% of its economic output – a move that was mandated by Nato.

Trump previously claimed Europe's Nato members were not spending enough to support the alliance and were relying on the US to shoulder the burden.

He said the US would move nearly 12,000 troops out of Germany, some of whom going elsewhere in Europe.

Maas told Deutschlandfunk radio on Monday that the argument over spending would be conducted in a different style under Biden but would not end.