Walter Finch
SPAIN has refused to increase its military spending – the lowest in NATO – to maintain a defence budget of just 1.32% of GDP this year.
Instead, it is sticking to its plan to hit the military alliance minimum spend of 2% by 2029, ignoring pleas from NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte to meet that threshold ‘before the summer.’
The plan will see Spain bump up its spending by €4 billion a year from a current €17.52 billion to €36.56 billion – although this figure will not be adjusted upwards as Spain’s economy grows, according to a report in El Pais.
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Pedro Sanchez’s spending plan will come at odds with his European allies, with whom he is gathering for a summit in Paris today.
They are set to discuss the fallout from the recent Munich Security Conference, where new US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth said the US will ‘no longer be the primary guarantor of European security.’
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has become the first European leader – after France’s Emanuel Macron floated the idea last year – to announce he was prepared to deploy British soldiers to a peace keeping force in Ukraine.
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“I do not say that lightly,” he wrote in the Daily Telegraph. “I feel very deeply the responsibility that comes with potentially putting British servicemen and women in harm’s way.
“But any role in helping to guarantee Ukraine’s security is helping to guarantee the security of our continent, and the security of this country.”
Meanwhile, Hegseth has called for NATO partners to reach a lofty 5% of defence spending, which would entail a quadrupling of Spain’s current financial commitment.
It is in this challenging environment that Spain has decided to double down on its meagre defence spending, which is lower as a percentage of GDP than even Luxembourg.
Sanchez will likely come under pressure in Paris to review the spending plan, which is in part informed by Spain’s distance from Russia and the lack of military threats in its geographic environment.
On the other side of the tug-of-war will be Sanchez’s left-wing coalition partners in Sumar, who have criticised ‘outrageous military spending’ and warned against ‘falling into a spiral of militarisation.’
Sanchez’s wriggle room will be helped by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s proposed announcement to exclude defence spending from EU debt and deficit calculations under the Stability Pact.
Under the current defence spending plan, Spain’s government is planning to purchase three new S-80 submarines, a fleet of 8×8 Dragon armoured vehicles and 25 Eurofighter jets under.
However, the national budget still has to be approved, and until then no new defence programmes can be launched.
Meanwhile, Russia’s military spending in 2024 exceeded that of the entire EU and the UK combined – $462 billion versus $457 billion.
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