Zoë Dahse
President Donald Trump lashed out against Spain over NATO contributions, after the Spanish government stood out as the only country against dedicating 5% of GDP to military spending by 2035, despite other countries following this new expenditure rule.
Leader of NATO, Mark Rutte, asked all members to raise their spending to 5%. Pedro Sanchez and Rutte reached an agreement to allow Spain’s exemption from this requirement.
Trump had a strong response to begin with on Tuesday following the first report of this happening: “There’s a problem with Spain. Spain is not agreeing, which is very unfair to the rest of them, frankly.”
READ MORE: WATCH: Calls in Spain to leave ‘criminal alliance’ NATO and cut military ties with the USA
On Truth Social he then said that “Spain threatens to derail the NATO summit.”
On Wednesday, at a press conference, Trump added that “It’s terrible what Spain has done (…) We’re negotiating a trade deal and I will make them pay twice as much. I’m serious about that.”
Spain has so far found little support: only Belgium and Slovakia have explicitly sided with it, while rejecting the 5 figure.
Italy’s Giorgia Meloni also made sardonic remarks towards Pedro Sanchez, saying Italy and Spain have both agreed to pay the same figure in an ironic tone.
Rafa Rubio, an economist, said in conversation with La Noche en 24 that Spain would not suffer as much from Trump’s threats of a trade deal that will harm Spain, given that Spain does not export as much to the US as other countries. Cooking oil is its main export at the moment.
Following the summit, Sanchez said that “We have reached an agreement which is faithful to the spirit of multilateralism and which satisfies us all”, having previously sent a public letter to Rutte calling the target “unreasonable”.
READ MORE: Spain officially rejects NATO’s demand of spending 5% GDP on defence ‘to protect welfare state’
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I have to agree with Trump on this issue. It is definitely NOT fair for Spain to pay less NATO contributions than other EU members. Protecting the “Welfare” state is not a good enough excuse!