Spain\u2019s prime minister, Pedro S\u00e1nchez, has rejected Nato\u2019s proposal for member states to increase their defence spending to 5% of their GDP, saying the idea would \u201cnot only be unreasonable but also counterproductive\u201d.<\/p>\n
S\u00e1nchez said that he was not seeking to complicate next week\u2019s Nato<\/a> summit in The Hague, but he wanted there to be a \u201cmore flexible formula\u201d that would either make the target optional or allow Spain to opt out.<\/p>\n The proposal \u2013 advanced by the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, in response to Donald Trump\u2019s demands for a 5% target \u2013 suggests member states agree to raise defence spending to 3.5% of their GDP and commit a further 1.5% to wider security spending.<\/p>\n In a letter to Rutte that emerged on Thursday, S\u00e1nchez questioned the possible consequences of such a rise, saying it would be incompatible with Spain\u2019s welfare state and its vision of the world.<\/p>\n \u201cCommitting to a 5% target would not only be unreasonable but also counterproductive because it would move Spain further away from optimal spending and would hinder the EU\u2019s ongoing efforts to strengthen its security and defence ecosystem,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is the legitimate right of every government to decide whether or not they are willing to make those sacrifices. As a sovereign ally, we choose not to.\u201d<\/p>\n Spain currently lags well behind other western nations by dedicating only about 1.3% of its GDP to defence spending, well short of the current Nato target of 2%. It has suggested a target of 2.1%.<\/p>\n Two months ago, S\u00e1nchez announced a \u20ac10.5bn (\u00a39bn) \u201cindustrial and technological plan for security and defence\u201d to help Spain hit the 2% target by the end of the year<\/a>, saying it had become obvious \u201conly Europe<\/a> will know how to protect Europe\u201d from now on.<\/p>\n Asked for comment about Spain\u2019s request, a Nato official told Reuters: \u201cDiscussions among allies on a new defence investment plan are ongoing.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump increased pressure on the alliance in January, saying the US had shouldered the global defence burden for too long and that he would ask all members to increase defence spending to 5% of GDP.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to This is Europe<\/p>\n The most pressing stories and debates for Europeans \u2013 from identity to economics to the environment<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Rutte has urged member states to use the threats from Washington as an incentive to take unilateral action on raising defence contributions. He said last month that the pressure was already paying off in countries such as Spain, Portugal, Belgium and Italy.<\/p>\n \u201cI tell them that, well, now I am calling you to ask you to deliver the 2% by the summer, so that collectively we can move considerably north of the 2% because we have to spend much, much more,\u201d he said in March.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spain\u2019s prime minister, Pedro S\u00e1nchez, has rejected Nato\u2019s proposal for member states to increase their defence spending to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312],"tags":[2000,299,104],"class_list":{"0":"post-197922","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-spain"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114711698270123278","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}