Spain is pushing back against a NATO summit initiative aimed at placating US President Donald Trump, as it resists committing to his demand that alliance members boost defence spending to 5% of GDP.
In a strongly worded letter sent on Thursday to NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez described the proposed target as ‘unreasonable’ and warned it could harm the country’s economy and social services by diverting essential public funds.
Next Wednesday, NATO leaders will gather in The Hague amid concerns about whether the US will remain a reliable guarantor of European security. Trump has threatened to withdraw support from allies that don’t meet the 5% defence spending threshold.
While Rutte has received general backing for his plan to raise core defence spending to 3.5% of GDP by 2030 – alongside an additional 1.5% for security-related infrastructure such as bridges, roads and cybersecurity – Spain and several other member states have yet to agree to the proposal, according to officials.
In late April, Sánchez revealed that his government was planning to boost defence funding by €10.5 billion, reaching 2% of GDP. He said the additional funds would go toward areas such as telecommunications, cybersecurity, military hardware procurement, as well as improvements in personnel salaries and recruitment. ALSO READ: Pedro Sánchez announces €10.5bn more in defence spending, to reach 2% of GDP.
Sánchez’s letter on Thursday represents a significant challenge to Rutte’s efforts and is likely to deepen divisions among allies.
In the correspondence, Sánchez said that the 5% figure would be ‘unreasonable and counterproductive’, and that it conflicts with maintaining the welfare state.
The Spanish leader warned that a hasty attempt to reach 5% could impede the country’s economic progress ‘through debt increase, inflationary pressures and the diversion of investment from crucial activities with a higher multiplier effect than the defence industry’, pointing to sectors such as healthcare, education and technology.
He added: ‘The empirical reality is that, for Spain, as for other NATO countries, reaching 5% defence spending will be impossible unless it comes at the cost of increasing taxes on the middle class, cutting public services and social benefits for their citizens.’
As NATO’s most prominent left-leaning head of government, Sánchez also cautioned that higher military spending would likely force nations to retreat from commitments to international development and green initiatives – areas already under strain in many right-leaning countries.
‘Committing to a 5% target would not only be unreasonable, but also counterproductive, as it would move Spain further away from optimal spending and would hinder the EU’s on-going efforts to strengthen its security and and defence ecosystem,’ Sánchez stated in the letter.
He further argued that the target, proposed by the United States, is ‘incompatible with our welfare state and our world vision’.
Sánchez suggested two alternatives in his message to Rutte: either exempt Spain from any new defence spending requirement or adopt a flexible approach that ‘makes the spending target optional’.
The Spanish government believes that allocating 2.1% of GDP will be sufficient to fulfill the country’s projected military investment needs, Sánchez noted.
To avoid a repeat of Trump’s abrupt departure from a recent G7 summit, NATO has condensed its upcoming meeting in The Hague to a single working session. Originally scheduled to last three days, the summit will now feature only a two-and-a-half hour discussion among the 32 alliance leaders, focused solely on the proposed spending commitments.
Trump recently left a G7 summit in Canada early, skipping the second day, which included scheduled talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
While Trump claimed he had to return to Washington to manage the conflict between Israel and Iran, insiders said his early exit was also driven by frustration with French President Emmanuel Macron, who had made an unscheduled stop in Greenland and opposed Trump’s ambitions to acquire the territory. Trump also reportedly had little interest in meeting Zelensky.
The Ukrainian president has been invited to attend the dinner in The Hague on Tuesday night.
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