US President Donald Trump directly confronted Pedro Sánchez on Tuesday, asserting that Spain “has become a problem” when it comes to increasing defense spending to 5% of its GDP within NATO. According to Reuters, Trump addressed this issue from his plane en route to the Atlantic Alliance summit in The Hague. These words from the US President came within the framework of NATO’s new plans, which set the target at 5% by 2035.
NATO’s 5% Target by 2035: Spain’s Resistance and Consequences
It is Trump’s response to Sánchez’s idea of spending only 2.1% to cover Spain’s capabilities within NATO, a figure that the Alliance’s Secretary General believes needs to be increased by up to 3.5%. This number of so-called capability targets will be reviewed in 2029 to see who is right. In the meantime, government sources have limited themselves to responding to Trump that this position is “his opinion” and that negotiations on Spain’s spending and role have been “discreet” in recent weeks. In fact, there has already been a clash with the government over two figures. The first is that all allies, including Spain, accept the 5% spending target within 10 years, but accepting does not mean, and Moncloa insists, that the country will not reach this figure. Other allies such as Germany, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Norway, and Poland are already on their way with their national plans. On the other hand, the Spanish government focuses on the second figure: the Capability Targets, i.e., the quota a partner must meet within the Alliance. Sánchez says that Spain with 2.1% will contribute “no more and no less” its part; but Rutte hesitates. Since his return to power, Trump has insisted that all allies must reach 5% of spending, a path that will be divided into two parts over the next ten years: 3.5% for pure military spending and another 1.5% considering issues such as cybersecurity or border control. Moncloa emphasizes that it will not reach this goal because it would violate the welfare state. “This is counterproductive,” Sánchez warned in an exchange of letters with Rutte himself.
Rutte’s Praise for Trump and NATO Unity
On the other hand, Trump himself published a series of messages from Mark Rutte during the day, in which the Alliance’s Secretary General praises the US President’s role and confirms that “all allies” have committed to the new target. “You will achieve something that no President of the United States has ever achieved,” he told him, as confirmed by NATO itself; Rutte celebrated Trump’s signature and also thanked him for his role in the ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and Iran. “Europe will pay a lot, as it should, and it will be your victory,” he concluded. However, the same sources did not confirm that the publication was by mutual agreement.
