PEDRO Sanchez’s government has told NATO that the number of personnel in Spain’s armed forces will rise by 11% over the next decade,
In raw numbers, it means an increase of 14,000 people- half of which will be recruited by 2029.
The El Pais newspaper says the pledge to increase numbers is within the Capabilities Objective that NATO has assigned to Spain for the period 2025-2035.
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It was endorsed at the recent NATO summit held in The Hague.
The plans were included in the defence and security plan unveiled by Pedro Sanchez in April.
He referred then to a total investment of €10.4 billion but without specifying what that would mean over increasing military personnel.
There are five phases of the plan, with phase one seeing 35% of the investment(€3.6 billion) going to improve working conditions in addition to increasing numbers.
Equipment updates and enhancing military training systems also come as part of the package.
The Spanish government says that based on a study by its Defence Staff, a 2.1% share of its GDP is enough to meet its NATO commitments, as opposed to the 5% agreed at the recent summit.
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