Spain is joining the joint purchases of U.S. military equipment by NATO countries for shipment to Ukraine. The decision was confirmed by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez upon arriving at the meeting of the European Council this Thursday in Brussels. “This is a proposal that NATO launched a few weeks ago. I had the opportunity to speak with President Zelenskiy […] and I informed him that we were going to join this program,” the Spanish leader stated in response to questions from the media.

His response contained an implicit rebuttal of the reiterated criticisms and threats from U.S. President Donald Trump for not committing to spending 5% of GDP on the defense budget: “Spain is a country committed to the Atlantic Alliance,” Sánchez stressed.

In the past week, Trump, both in response to questions from the press and on his own initiative, has criticized Spain on three occasions. “Spain is not a team player,” he lashed out this Wednesday at a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the White House. The American president is deeply bothered by the Spanish government’s resistance to spend the equivalent of 5% of GDP on defense, a commitment reached by NATO partners at the last summit in June in The Hague. At that meeting, Spain signed the agreement reached by the Allies, but first obtained a written commitment from Rutte to try to meet its targets with 2.1% spending, a figure that Spain considers sufficient to cover all its NATO obligations.

And it is this last commitment that Sánchez clings to when he repeatedly states that “Spain is a reliable partner.” “We are fulfilling our obligations and commitments, especially on what was agreed upon regarding capabilities,” the Socialist leader added. This summer, NATO estimated that the Spanish government was spending 2% of GDP on defense.

Spain insists that contributions to the Atlantic Alliance (of which it has been a member since 1982) should be measured not only by investment in defense but also by other factors, such as contributions to missions and operations. Spain participates in several extremely important missions, for example, in the Baltic countries, which are particularly sensitive to the threat posed by Russia, and in Slovakia. Spain also participates in missions in Turkey (where it has also deployed a Patriot anti-missile battery), Romania and Iraq.

Furthermore, as first reported by this newspaper, Spain will join the PURL (Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List) program coordinated by NATO to address Ukraine’s demands to fight the Russian invasion.

The plan was launched last August, following President Trump’s refusal to continue supplying weapons to Ukraine free of charge, as his predecessor, Joe Biden, had done. That decision marked a change in the West’s approach to supporting Kiyv and has depleted Ukrainian arsenals. But Ukraine still needs defense equipment from Washington, so a group of European allies agreed to finance the purchases.

During August, four packages of U.S. weapons (including Patriot anti-aircraft missiles and Himars long-range rockets) worth around $2 billion were prepared and financed by Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Other nations have since joined the plan, including now also Spain, which, in addition, under its own bilateral agreement with Ukraine, already supplies military equipment worth $1 billion a year, although this is domestically produced.

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