Shock has caused to his ranks NATOits Prime Minister’s request SpainPedro Sanchez to seek his country’s exemption from the goal of growing countries-members of the North Atlantic Alliance to 5% (from 2%).
The Request by Spain leader, Sanchez The NATO Summit “burst” a week before the scheduled Summit, so the decision should be taken, along with the time -reaching time, with the scenarios playing between 2028, 2030 and 2032.
Spain wishes an exception from NATO’s potential future target for 5% of GDP defense spending, said Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez ahead of the alliance’s summit that will take place next week in The Hague, which will be an important issue.
“Spain will continue to fulfill its duty in the coming years and in the coming decades and will continue to contribute actively to European security architecture. However, Spain cannot be committed to a specific GDP spending target at this summit, “Sanchez told NATO Secretary -General Mark Rutte in a letter, according to Politico.
Spain has the lowest military spending by any NATO member, with only 1.3% of its GDP in defense in 2024. Sanchez said earlier this year that Russia is not an immediate threat to Spain’s security.
NATO countries meet next week for the first summit of the alliance from Donald Trump’s return to the White House. The US president wants members to spend 5% of their GDP on defense, a big jump from the current 2% target, which Madrid will only achieve this year.
Addressing Trump, Rutte suggested that the 5% target would include 3.5% of GDP in pure military spending and 1.5% on defense -related issues such as military mobility and cyber security.
The NATO decision -making process is based on consensus, which means that one can block others 31 by veto. Earlier this month, Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robs said Madrid would not prevent NATO allies from agreeing to a new 5% target, but that her country would insist on 2% at present.
“Of course, it is not our intention to limit the ambitions of the expenditure of other allies or to prevent the outcome of the upcoming summit,” the letter to Sanchez says, requesting either a flexible wording that would make the target optional or a correct exception to Spain.
On the contrary, the Swedish political parties agreed on Thursday, June 19, 2025, to achieve a 5% goal by 2032 and borrow up to 300 billion crowns (27 billion euros) to do so.
Sanchez argued that Spain does not need to spend 5% of its GDP to achieve the so -called skill goals, which means new targets for the stock of weapons agreed by NATO defense ministers earlier this month.
He also wrote that a 5% target for defense spending would endanger the country’s social welfare system, forced the government to increase taxes in the middle class, reduce green transition commitments and reduce international growth cooperation.
“It is a legal right for every government to decide whether he is willing to make these sacrifices,” he wrote.
The 5% hasty increase would also force Madrid to buy ready -made equipment instead of boosting its own industrial base, as well as removing money from social welfare policies, Sanchez also wrote.
The Spanish Socialist Party is in a coalition with the lower left Sumar party, which opposes the increase in defense spending and whose members are expected to attend an anti-peak for peace alongside the NATO summit.