Spain rejects proposals for defense spending ahead of NATO summit – Country
The success of the NATO summit continued the balance after Spain announced it could not raise billions to meet the billions needed for new defense investment commitments demanded by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Trump and his NATO colleagues will meet in the Netherlands for two days starting next Tuesday. He insists that U.S. allies should commit to spending at least 5% of GDP, but that requires investment on an unprecedented scale.
Trump expressed doubts about whether the United States would defend its allies that cost too little.
Setting spending goals will be a historic decision. It will see defense investments in all 32 countries for the first time. It was not until last week that NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte recognized them.
But in a letter to Rat Thursday, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez wrote: “The promise to reach the five percent target is not only unreasonable, but it will backfire.”
Sanchez saw in the letter that this would keep Spain away from the best spending, which would hinder the (EU) ongoing efforts to strengthen its security and defense ecosystem. ”
Spain is not completely alone
Belgium, Canada, France and Italy will also have difficulty placing security spending billions of dollars, but Spain is the only country to formally announce its intentions, making it difficult to back off such public decisions.
Besides his economic challenges, Sánchez has other problems. He relies on small parties to rule, and corruption scandals tied his inner circle and family. He is under increasing pressure to hold early elections.
In response to the letter, the Rutt office said only: “Discussions of allies in a new defense investment plan are underway.” NATO's top civilian official was a new proposal made on Friday in an attempt to break the deadlock.
The U.S. and France envoys also aimed to update journalists about the latest developments before the summit, but delayed their briefing.
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Rutte and many European allies are eager to solve the problem on Tuesday so that Trump will not derail the way he was in 2018 when he was in his first term at NATO headquarters.
After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, NATO allies agreed that 2% of GDP should be their minimum spend on the military budget. However, NATO's new plan to defend its territory from external attacks requires at least three percent of its investment. Spain agreed to these plans in 2023.
The five percent target consists of two parts. Allies will agree to hike pure defense spending to 3.5% of GDP. Another 1.5% will be used to upgrade roads, bridges, ports and airports so that the army can be deployed better and prepare for future attacks.
Mathematically speaking, 3.5 plus 1.5 equals five percent of Trump. But, a lot of things are hidden behind numbers and details, and these things are still cloudy.
The closest countries to Russia, Belarus and Ukraine have agreed to the target, as well as nearby Germany, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands, which will be held from June 24 to 25.
The Netherlands estimates that NATO's defense plan will force it to devote at least 3.5% of its core defense spending. This means finding another 16 billion to 19 billion euros ($18 billion to $22 billion).
Weapons and ammunition are provided to Ukraine, and Spain will also serve as the core defense expenditure.
NATO estimates that the U.S. spent about 3.2% of its GDP on defense last year.
Dual use makes combat possible
The extra 1.5% spending basket is more blurry. Rutte and many members believe that infrastructure for deploying troops to the frontlines must be included, as well as building a defense industry and preparing citizens for possible attacks.
“If a tank can't cross the bridge. If our society is not prepared, just in case a war breaks out for the whole society approach. If we can't really develop the defense industrial base, then 3.5% are great, but you won't be able to really defend yourself,” Rutte said this month.
Spain wants to include climate change spending, but the proposal was rejected. Cybersecurity and anti-hybrid war investments should also lay off employees. With all the guesswork about what might be included, however, it's hard to see how Rutte reaches this 1.5% figure.
When, how and cunning plans
It is not enough to agree to spend more money. Many allies have not reached their two-tenths of target yet, although most will have a decade-long goal this year, and they have a decade to get there. Therefore incentives are needed.
The 2032 date has been used as the deadline. This is much shorter than previous NATO targets, but military planners estimate that Russian troops will be able to launch attacks on allies within five to ten years.
The United States insists that this is not an open-ended commitment and that a decade is too long. Despite this, Italy said it hopes to reach its 5% target.
Another problem is that spending should be accelerated. “I have a crafty plan,” Rutt said. He hopes that the allies submit annual plans to clarify the amount they intend to increase their spending.
Reasons for spending hiking
For Europe, Russia's war against Ukraine poses an existential threat. Moscow blames significant increase in sabotage, cyberattacks and GPS jamming events. European leaders are inviting their citizens to have more possibilities.
The United States also insists that China poses a threat. But to make European people support the hike of defense spending, their government calls for recognition that the Kremlin remains NATO's biggest security challenge.
The billions of dollars needed for security will be raised through taxes, debt or from other budgets. But, as Spain has shown, it is not easy for many people.
Most importantly, Trump has made things harder by launching a global tariff war (oglely for U.S. national security reasons), which is hard for U.S. allies to understand.
