Spain says it will meet NATO’s defense spending goal of 2% of GDP this year
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MADRID (AP) — Spain will meet NATO’s defense spending target this year, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said Tuesday, as pressure grows on the eurozone’s fourth-largest economy to boost its military expenditure.
Sánchez said the government will raise defense spending by 10.5 billion euros ($12 billion) to reach NATO’s target of 2% of GDP. The spending will go toward telecommunications, cybersecurity and buying military equipment, he said, as well as raising salaries and adding troops.
Spain spent the least of all NATO members last year on defense as a share of GDP. It previously committed to reaching the 2% target by 2029. But it has come under pressure for not spending enough amid a widening chasm in the transatlantic alliance as the Trump administration says its security priorities lie elsewhere.
U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly taken European allies to task for not spending enough on their own defense and has pushed NATO allies to raise defense spending to as much as 5% of GDP.
While European allies consider Trump’s 5% target to be unrealistic, NATO leaders are expected to set a fresh spending target at the military alliance’s next summit this summer in The Hague. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has said the new goal should be “north of 3%.
Facing what he called a “changing era,” Sánchez on Tuesday said that it was time for Spain to “take control of our own destiny” and contribute to Europe’s rearmament.
“If you asked me years ago about my government’s investment priorities in security and defense, it’s obvious my response would have been different,” Sánchez said. “That’s not because our values have changed … it’s because the world has.”
The Socialist leader heads a minority government with hard-left coalition partners that oppose defense and military increases. Sánchez said his plan to boost defense spending would not go through Parliament.
Besides Spain, seven of NATO’s 32 member countries still spend less than 2% of GDP on their defense budgets. They are Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal and Slovenia.