Ben Pawlowski
SPAIN and the UK have united to lobby President Trump to delay a target for NATO members to spend 3.5% of GDP on core defence, according to a report in The Times.
The UK is reportedly leading a group of European nations including Spain, Italy and Portugal in trying to persuade allies to push back the 3.5% target to 2035.
Currently, President Donald Trump and Mark Rutte, the Nato secretary-general, are pushing member states to agree to spend 5% of national income on defence by 2032 – 3.5% on core defence spending and the remainder on related items such as intelligence.
However, the UK and Spain are arguing that pushing the deadline to a decade from now would make more sense, giving the defence industry sufficient time to adapt to increased demand.
READ MORE: Spain is the last NATO holdout to reject Trump’s demand to spend 5% of GDP on defence
Under the proposal, defence spending would rise to 2.5% by April 2027, to 3% by 2034 and then 3.5% by 2035.
Last week, the Olive Press reported that Spain was one of the last remaining member states to resist a big rise in defence spending, caused by increased tensions with Russia and President Trump threatening to withdraw the US from the security alliance unless European members foot a larger proportion of the NATO bill.
In 2024, Spain spent just 1.3% of GDP on defence, the lowest proportion within NATO, and well below the alliance’s original 2% target.
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