Spain has reached an agreement with the NATO military alliance to be excluded from the target of raising defense spending to 5% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This was announced by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
“Spending 5% would be disproportionate and unnecessary,” Sanchez declared in an address on national television. “We fully respect other countries’ desire to increase their defense investment, but we will not do it,” he stated, adding that Spain would be able to fulfill all its commitments to NATO regarding personnel and equipment requirements even with a spending level of just 2.1% of its GDP.
Earlier on Sunday, various diplomats indicated that the 32 NATO member states had agreed on a declaration for the upcoming summit, setting a new goal of 5% of GDP for annual defense and security spending by 2035, seemingly overriding Spain’s initial refusal.
In a letter sent on Thursday, Prime Minister Sanchez had informed NATO chief Mark Rutte of his country’s wish to be excluded from the 5% GDP spending target. This letter had previously raised concerns that Spain might undermine the entire summit.
With approximately 1.28% of GDP spent on defense last year, Spain had the lowest share of defense spending among NATO members, according to NATO data. However, Sanchez had agreed in April to meet NATO’s current target of 2% of GDP for defense spending this year.
